Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 90 When Love-Deprived Lan Meets a Scumbag

At seven o'clock that evening, Xiaolan left her mother's apartment.

The busy streets were filled with the golden afterglow of the setting sun. Xiaolan looked up at the brilliant sunset glow in the sky. There were warm crystals flickering there, which were the tears that had not been seen in her mother's eyes for a long time.

Touched, pleased and relieved.

The daughter of her family who had always sided with her good-for-nothing father, the daughter from whom she had been separated since childhood and it had been ten years, had finally grown up and understood her difficulties.

This afternoon, Kisaki Eri finally felt the warmth of family for the first time in a long time.

When Xiaolan gently wiped away the tears from the corners of her mother's eyes with a handkerchief, she clearly sighed softly while blaming herself in her heart.

After all, I still can’t go back.

Ten years ago.

Is growing up always painful?

Xiaolan raised her hand to hail a taxi. When getting in the car, she looked back at her mother's apartment for the last time.

Perhaps she had anticipated the result, and the reality was just a simple repetition without much feeling. Therefore, Xiaolan did not feel any deep pain, and even comforted her mother well before.

She just felt a little empty inside.

bang——

The car door closed.

"Miss, where are you going?" the driver asked.

Xiaolan slowly closed her eyes, her expression extremely calm: "Shinjuku, Kabukicho."

Half an hour later, Xiaolan separated herself from the bustling crowd and walked into a cafe on the corner.

Although the decoration style is old-school British and quite heavy and restrained, it is located in a more prosperous area in Kabukicho after all, and it is still bustling with people.

Xiaolan stood at the door and looked inside, but couldn't find her target for a long time. All she saw were groups of young men and women gathered around the bar and at the booths, making loud noises and making fun. Xiaolan thought she had come to a bar.

In fact, she was not very familiar with the bar, but it was said that it was filled with excess youthful hormones.

Maybe she stood at the door for too long, a little yellow-haired boy came up to her and started a conversation. Xiaolan glanced at him indifferently and didn't say anything. She just took out her cell phone and called Yingsheng.

"Where are you?"

"Order a cup of coffee first, and I'll tell you."

The voice from the other end was quite low, which made Xiaolan feel a little confused, but listening to the background sound, she realized that they were indeed in this cafe.

The phone call had been hung up, and she had no choice but to walk towards the bar.

The waiter was wearing a fitted black suit, a brown apron, and a linen-gray detective hat with the brim pulled down quite low, so his face could not be seen clearly.

Xiaolan only took a glance, rolled her eyes, and sat down on the bar stool:
“What is the most difficult coffee?”

"Iced Americano." The waiter said with a smile.

"First, have a cup of this, and then a cup of the kind that can be latte art. The more complicated the pattern, the better."

"How about Along the River During the Qingming Festival?"

"Of course, if you can do it."

So the waiter made a cup of iced Americano and pushed it to Xiaolan: "This is your iced Americano, guest." He made another cup of iced Americano and pushed it to her: "The Qingming Riverside Scene depicts the lives of all living beings. This cup has a bitter and sour aftertaste, named 'My Self-Image', which is in no way inferior to it."

Xiaolan sighed softly, took out a two-in-one straw for couples from the paper tube next to her, inserted it upside down into the two cups of coffee, and took a deep sip.

"What is this?" she asked, looking up.

The waiter took off his hat and apron and smiled softly: "You have a good lung capacity."

"..." Xiaolan was speechless: "Mom's reaction was exactly what you guessed, Shuiyuejun. I never asked her to go home. I just cooked with her and made an appointment for the next time. We naturally talked about the past at the dinner table.

Alas, my mother really suffered a lot of injustice in the past. "

"She doesn't need your sympathy." Yingsheng said.

"Yes, I restrained myself from expressing this, and when I comforted my mother, I also focused more on her strength. My mother was very happy about this, and even modesty could not hide it."

Xiaolan sighed softly: "When she mentioned her current career later, she only stated the facts without any subjective judgment. Everything came from her talent. It can be seen that she is very proud."

"Feel sorry."

Yingsheng added sugar cubes to Xiaolan's iced Americano with a small pair of tongs and said apologetically, "Reconciliation between mother and daughter should be a natural thing, full of family harmony and warmth, but I tarnished it."

Xiaolan shook her head: "I was worried that I wasn't doing well enough, so I asked Shuiyue-kun to do this. Facts have proved that compared to what I thought before, Mom is indeed happier this way."

"You haven't tried your method yet, so how do you know the result? Maybe it will be better."

"I was planning to mention Dad."

"Oh, that's a bad idea indeed."

"But my mother later mentioned my father herself, saying that she had never regretted this relationship or this marriage, and that her past family life and my father were not as bad as we said."

"For example?"

"My mother did work as a full-time housewife for a few years when I was young, but she had gradually started to work again before I entered the first grade of primary school. It was not that she completely gave up her career."

"It seems that you have been very sensible since you were young, and you won't take up too much of the adults' attention. It's a pity that your memory is not very good. You were an eyewitness to this incident and the incident where Lawyer Fei was shot, but you had to learn about it from other people."

Xiaolan blushed and pretended not to hear: "Besides, before my father stopped being a policeman, his lifestyle was not as sloppy as it is now. At least he would listen to my mother when she talked to him."

“Do you think this passage has been embellished by memory?”

"I don't know. Anyway, I no longer have any illusions about them getting back together. It doesn't matter what impression they have of each other."

Yingsheng reached out and placed the back of his hand on Xiaolan's forehead, and placed the back of his other hand on his own forehead, confirming for a few seconds: "Strange, there is no fever."

Xiaolan rolled her eyes at him: "Do you think that after hearing what my mother said, my fantasy will be rekindled?"

"Isn't it?" Yingsheng asked back.

Xiaolan was silent for a few seconds: "Of course I did, and I almost went against Suigetsu-kun's advice and brought it up with my mother.

But at that time, the cat named Kogoro that her mother raised jumped onto her lap.

I was sitting next to my mother at the time and I actually saw the affectionate look she showed towards the cat.

But that kind of look did not appear when she mentioned her father to me.

I think Shuiyue-kun is right again.

The man my mother likes is just a pearl polished by time. He is not even the father he was ten years ago, and he is even less likely to be the father who has become worse now.

The longer your parents are apart, the greater the gap between the image of that person in your mind and reality will be.

There is no way they can go back to the past."

clang--

The ice cubes collided with the sugar cubes, splashing a little bitterness.

Sweet, but not yet melted.

"Let's go," she said.

(End of this chapter)