Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 377: For Xiaolan, Yingsheng decided to fall in love with Hongzi first!

2pm, Geylang Hock Hoi Temple.

The Singapore police wrapped the body in a body bag and nodded to Kuroba Kaito politely as they carried the body past him.

Kuroba Kaito called back a few people, and when he saw Yingsheng's figure appear at the door, he walked over quickly.

"Sui Yue, what exactly is this? Can't we just talk about it over the phone?"

Hotaru made way for the police and looked at Kuroba Kaito.

"Case solved?"

"The method was not complicated. It was an impulsive murder."

Kuroba Kaito sighed, "I feel like the martial arts tournament you hosted set a very bad example. The murder rate in Singapore has been increasing recently. It seems like everyone is beginning to think that killing is not a big deal."

“West Coast Park has set up a public execution ground. In addition to the popular caning, there are even on-the-spot executions. It should have a good warning effect,” said Yingsheng.

"Actually, I feel like that's also counterproductive. It's too cruel."

When Kuroba Kaito saw the love gift box in Hotaru's hand, his eyes twitched.

"I say, you came to me just to give me this? This can't possibly be made by you, right?"

Yingsheng tilted his head and looked at Kuroba Kaito without saying a word.

Kuroba Kaito stood there in a daze, his scalp gradually starting to feel numb, and he couldn't help but take a half step back.

"I...I'm warning you, don't mess around."

"I just wonder why you have such an idea."

Yingsheng lowered his eyebrows slightly and sighed softly.

"It seems that my reputation is really bad to a certain extent. Kudo-kun, may I ask if any of the information about me that is circulating in the outside world came from you?"

"Absolutely not!"

Kuroba Kaito said seriously: "How can I speak without any investigation? Regarding the subtle relationship between you and Gin..."

"I'm sorry, Shuiyue, but quite a lot of people know about the incident at the Mika Central Hospital. It's impossible to keep it secret."

"It's really a headache, but you can't shirk your responsibility." Yingsheng handed over the chocolate with a smile.

"So, can you eat it now?"

Kuroba Kaito was stunned, "You're jumping around too much."

He looked at the bright red heart in Yingsheng's hand and couldn't help shivering, with his hands behind his back.

"I believe it's not you, but you have to tell me the origin of it. Who would dare to eat it if it's handed to them like this?"

There was an open space next to the Zen temple, and Yingsheng walked towards that direction.

"This is a gift from a young girl, but for some reason, she doesn't want to reveal her name. Do you have any suspicions? I hope you do."

Kuroba Kaito stroked his chin, wondering who would give Kudo Shinichi love chocolates.

And he didn't want to reveal his name, so he could find Yingsheng to help...

"Vermouth?" he asked tentatively.

"Maybe, after all, her face...well...it's like that anyway." Yingsheng said unclearly.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Hei Yu Kaito curled his lips and suddenly stopped.

"It is impossible for Vermouth to reveal her true face in front of you. She must have disguised herself. And her disguised face is very special to you. You recognized her very quickly!"

"I never said that." Yingsheng said.

Kuroba Kaito had a bad feeling in his heart, "That person... is Xiaolan, right!"

"Well... I didn't expect that you, a famous Japanese detective, didn't have any problems with acclimatization after arriving in Singapore. You've been performing very well these days." Yingsheng changed the subject.

But in the eyes of Kuroba Kaito, this is a default!
He hurriedly asked, "In other words, the person who came to you and asked you to give the chocolates to her used Xiaolan's face, but you are 100% sure that she is not Xiaolan and thinks it is Vermouth?"

Yingsheng shook his head, "I don't think anything, these are just your imagination."

Kuroba Kaito immediately took a breath of cold air.

Could that person be Qingzi?

Kuroba Kaito quickly took out his cell phone and wanted to call Nakamori Aoko.

Yingsheng glanced at him and said, "The person you just guessed was Vermouth. What, do you have her contact number?"

Kuroba Kaito kept dialing. "I have other ways to verify. If it's her, as long as we follow the clues and catch her, many things will become clear."

But unfortunately, the phone on the other end was turned off.

Kuroba Kaito attacked three in a row, but all of them were turned off.

This made him more certain of his guess, but he couldn't understand why Aoko knew that he was now using Kudo Shinichi's identity.

Could it be that I have been in the news too many times these days and Qingzi discovered something?
But that’s not right either.

Qingzi said it herself last time.

——"It would be meaningless if you don't give it on Valentine's Day."

Although I finally got it, its meaning has completely changed.

And today is not Valentine's Day, how could Aoko suddenly give me chocolate?
Kuroba Kaito thought for a moment and looked at Hotaru seriously.

"Please, Shuiyue, tell me who she is!"

"As long as you eat it, that person might appear in front of you on his own." Yingsheng said.

"I……"

"Don't want to accept the affection of an unknown person? I actually think this is weird too. You can handle it however you want."

Hoto grabbed Kuroba Kaito's wrist and placed the chocolate in his right hand.

"To be honest, I don't really care about this kind of thing. On the contrary, I think that person is quite... well, tsundere. In short, he is the type who is timid and doesn't look very straightforward."

"...Girls are like this, I always feel your request is weird."

Kuroba Kaito glanced at the chocolate in his hand, "Anyway, thank you very much. This matter is quite important. I need to think about it carefully."

"It's up to you. Mission accomplished. I'm leaving now." Yingsheng walked towards the bushes beside the open space without looking back.

"...This guy is really weird, in many ways."

Looking at Hotaru's back, Kuroba Kaito scratched his head, then looked at the chocolate in his hand with a conflicted expression.

"Who could it be?"

Behind the bushes, the people who were peeping at Yingsheng were confused as to why.

"Didn't you say you wanted to see him eat it himself?"

After making sure that Kuroba Kaito turned and left, Sonoko was the first to jump out and ask.

"Who would eat chocolate of unknown origin right away? He's not Luffy." Hotaru shrugged. "If I stand aside and force him to eat it, it would be even more suspicious. He would suspect that there is poison mixed in it."

"Well, that's right..." Sonoko was a little unhappy that she didn't see the happy ending, "But you said so before."

"To be honest, I didn't fight him because you came over. Otherwise, I would have just pushed him to the ground and done with him." Yingsheng looked back and said, "If you're not satisfied, I can run back and push him to the ground now."

"...Then forget it." Sonoko looked at Koizumi Hongzi, "Koizumi-san, is this enough?"

Hongzi had been looking at Kuroba Kaito's back, but when she heard this she looked at Hotaru, "Did you do this on purpose?"

"I don't quite understand what you mean." Yingsheng said.

"The answer was not immediately determined. Are you using the box of chocolates as some kind of anchor for testing? Are you going to keep an eye on him from now on?" Hongzi said.

"Maybe, but isn't the decision always yours? I'm half curious, and half just..."

Yingsheng looked at Xiaolan.

Xiaolan sighed, "We shouldn't have come, right? Hotaru, you are definitely making excuses, and the conversation with Koizumi-san...it sounds so weird. Was it about zodiac signs and tarot cards? I can't understand it at all."

"We both have severe chuunibyou, but it's not a big problem."

Yingsheng extended his hand to Xiaolan, "The competition starts at 2:30 pm. Can I invite you to walk this part of the way with me, beautiful lady?"

Xiaolan smiled gently and reached out to hold Yingsheng's hand. "It just so happens that I have a lot of questions recently."

"Doubt will make the attack lose accuracy. Please let me answer it for you." Yingsheng said with a smile.

It's not too far from the stadium and is within easy walking distance.

After bidding farewell to Sonoko and Xiaolan, Yingsheng and Xiaolan strolled in silence on the tree-lined path of Geylang Road for about five minutes.

Mottled shadows of light danced on the ground, and the leaves rustled in the breeze.

Yingsheng suddenly exerted a little force with his fingertips and stopped.

Xiaolan didn't stop, but just turned her head to look at Yingsheng, her eyes bright, the corners of her mouth raised, revealing a gentle smile.

"Let's talk as we walk. I want to see what's going on that has you so troubled."

Yingsheng smiled bitterly, took another step forward, held Xiaolan's hand with his left hand, and took something out of his suit pocket with his right hand.

When Xiaolan saw that thing, she also raised her eyebrows.

"So you've switched the subject."

In Yingsheng's hand was a red heart-shaped gift box with a bow tied with a golden and red satin ribbon.

It was exactly the same one he had given to Kuroba Kaito before!
"Yeah, because it's... probably magical."

Yingsheng told Xiaolan most of the content of his previous communication with Hongzi, and added at the end: "I know this sounds a little unbelievable, but after my personal experience behind the scenes of the stadium and the temptations during the conversation, I am at least 80% sure that Koizumi Hongzi is really a witch."

"This……"

Xiaolan's eyes kept trembling, and she finally stopped. After a long while, she took a deep breath and looked at Yingsheng with a blank look.

"So, you are destined to fall in love with her?"

"I think this should be circumventable. Judging from the fact that she was fooled by my little trick just now, she is not an omniscient witch. She can even be considered naive."

Yingsheng also stopped, put his arms around Xiaolan's back and hugged her tightly in his arms.

"But, but..."

His voice gradually became lower, and he didn't say that sentence after all.

Xiaolan already understood what he meant, and said softly: "But you want to try it yourself, right?"

"Ah."

"Why? You also began to doubt our relationship... No, the doubts have never subsided from the beginning. You think that our relationship is not true love. Even if it involves risks, you still want to experience what true love is like."

Xiaolan asked and answered herself, her tone... as distant as the breeze on the treetops at this moment...

That is, a kind of floating and detached feeling.

Yingsheng was silent for a while, then said in a muffled voice: "I know that the definition of love is very broad. But for someone like me, if I want to experience a more universal 'love' in the sociological sense, this seems to be the only way."

"But why pursue such a thing?"

Xiaolan said in a rather anxious tone, "Is there anything wrong with the way we are now? Ying, you still care a lot about the fact that I have never given you love. But as I said, I don't object to you dating other people. This is my own reason. Just like this afternoon..."

"No, I think it's my fault."

Hotaru interrupted, "That's probably why I have doubts. And...when I was giving Gin psychological counseling, I also discovered some of my own problems."

"To be honest, I used to think that modern psychology's judgment that I had mental problems was absolutely wrong. I couldn't be any better."

"But when I think about it carefully, if I judge by human standards, I do seem to be a little mentally abnormal."

"I seem to have stood too high from the beginning."

Xiaolan interrupted, "Because you have Tianshu's personality, is there any problem with that? Didn't you agree with me that I would kill Tianshu slowly? Why are you so eager all of a sudden? Do you want to use external forces like magic?"

Xiaolan pushed Yingsheng away, her ocean-blue eyes already filled with tears, "Ying, please don't do that, I'm scared, I'm scared of losing you."

Yingsheng remained silent.

Tears slowly slid down her cheeks. Xiaolan stood on tiptoe and slowly pressed her lips against his.

After a long while, in the mottled sunlight, with a slight tremor, Xiaolan whispered: "Why do you have to insist on becoming a human? Even if you always stay as Tianshu and maintain the status quo, it will be fine."

Yingsheng gently stroked the corner of Xiaolan's eyes with his fingers and sighed, "Lan, do you really think so?"

"Yes! Absolutely!"

Xiaolan answered without hesitation.

Yingsheng shook his head, "How could this happen? I have always been very clear about how coldly I hurt you. And now, an opportunity for change has arrived..."

"No! Really not, I..."

"Shh-"

Yingsheng raised his index finger, touched Xiaolan's lips, and smiled gently.

"Trust me, Lan."

"From what I know so far, Koizumi Hongzi's magic doesn't seem to be too out of the ordinary. I have Xuantian's blessing, and I have set anchors in my heart and in other people's hearts through hypnosis. I am confident enough that I will never lose myself."

"And I can't be so reckless as to eat it now. I will find other animals or even humans to conduct experiments on until its effects are fully quantified."

"During this time, I will also learn magic knowledge from Koizumi Hongzi. I will not eat the chocolate until there is no risk at all."

"In this way, this is not some unknowable magic, but science, a scientific experiment with strictly controlled variables."

Xiaolan was stunned.

The traces of tears dried on the blushing pretty cheeks, the eyes were blank, and she looked extremely cute.

The reflection in Yingsheng's eyes gradually turned into a gentle smile. He put down his fingers, lowered his head slightly, and kissed Xiaolan's lips again.

Eye contact, breath hearing...

You can even feel every tiny line on your lips, moist...

When their lips parted again, their foreheads were pressed against each other, their breathing quickened. The red clouds from today's sunset came across time and space, dyeing Xiaolan's snow-white neck and earlobes red.

"Lan, trust me."

"I swear in the name of Xuantian that I will follow the arrangement of fate and fall in love with Koizumi Hongzi."

"Just to fall in love with you without any hesitation."

"Will you give me this chance?"

(End of this chapter)