Faced with the blackened heroine, they actually stopped time

The sudden close distance and the other person's unpredictable expression and eyes made it seem impossible to figure out what Qingye Liang was thinking.

Facing the air filled with ambiguity.

Oreki Gen chose not to think about it.

He took a step back.

"You're overthinking, Officer Qingye. There was no hint, let alone any temptation. You are a sacred police officer, and I dare not offend you casually. Okay, I'm going to take a shower."

Oreki Gen walked around the other person and went to the locker room to take a shower.

Qingye Liang, who was standing in the same place, glanced in the direction where the other party disappeared, smiled inexplicably, and walked to the other side.

The hot water soaked into my skin.

I can already feel my body gradually recovering. After taking a shower, the bruises have faded a lot and the pain is gone.

When Oreki Gen came out of the shower, Kiyono Ryo seemed not to have come out yet.

Although he was sure that he would not invite her to his home and there would be no other follow-up, the boy still waited for her out of politeness.

When Qingye Liang reappeared, he had already changed his clothes.

She was wearing the familiar suit of an urban elite woman and a stylish windbreaker, and she looked especially like the heroine in an adventure story. It seemed as if a mysterious person would suddenly appear at any time and start chasing the other person, and then lead the protagonist into a magical adventure.

But Oreki Gen doesn't want to take risks now, or rather...his life up to now has been an adventure that cannot be stopped.

"I thought you were gone. Why are you still waiting for me?"

Qingye Liang didn't seem to expect this and shook his still wet long hair.

Oreki Gen said with a smile.

"Am I such an inhuman person?"

"I don't know. Maybe someone who always smiles may actually have a cold and mean heart."

"Thank you very much, Officer Qingye, for having such high expectations for me."

Qingno Ryo rolled his eyes, then walked out of the fighting club with Oreki Gen. Then, before driving away, Qingno Ryo remembered something.

"It's still early anyway, and you'll just go to sleep if you go home, how about going for a midnight snack?"

Oreki Gen was actually a little hungry, after all, he had just done intense exercise...but why did he want to go home more than having a midnight snack outside with this woman?

"Are you going to have a midnight snack? Are you going to do something so unhealthy?"

Qing Ye Liang said unhappily: "Are you planning to live to be 200 years old? There are no such things as health. Eat or not, I'll treat you."

"Since you are so sincere, it would be hard for me to refuse..."

"Then stop talking nonsense and get in the car."

He almost roughly dragged Oreki Gen into the car, and the posture was like arresting a criminal.

Fortunately, the car the other party was driving was not a police car, otherwise if someone acquaintance saw it, the rumor that he was arrested would probably spread throughout the school.

The place where Kiyono Ryo brought Oreki Haru was a small shop where they ate oden.

There were also various beers, but Qingye Liang, who was driving, did not order any, which made Oreki Gen feel a little relieved.

There didn't seem to be many people in the store yet, and the food in the pot in front of them was divided into small compartments.

The air was filled with fragrance, but Oreki Xian always missed the simple spicy hot pot a little more.

There is no discrimination involved, it's just that this one is not spicy enough.

"Good fellow, you're just going to treat me to this? No wonder you're so happy to talk about treating me."

Qingye Liang was eating happily beside him, not caring about his image.

The two people drinking soda seemed to be the only customers in the store.

"That's right. Oden is also food and costs money. How can it not be considered an invitation? Be careful or the Oden Protection Association will arrest you."

"Is there really such an association?"

"I don't think so. I just said it casually. But if there is such an association in Sakura Country, it wouldn't be strange at all, right?"

"makes sense."

It's rare that I reached a consensus with this woman.

“Is reading fun?”

Oreki Gen was staring at the light in a daze when he suddenly heard the question from the woman next to him.

The boy looked over in surprise.

"Have you never read a book?"

Qingye Liang wiped his mouth and took a sip of soda, then rolled his eyes very elegantly.

“You haven’t read a book.”

"Then why are you asking this kind of question?"

In fact, there is no need to force yourself to find a topic if you don’t have one. It’s good for everyone to just go home after eating.

"Because I always feel that your high school life is quite special."

Qingye Liang thought for a moment and said so.

Oreki Gen said with a smile: "How do you think it's special? Isn't it the same? We have to go to class, take exams, have holidays, and follow the rules?"

Qingye Liang shook his head.

"No ordinary high school student would be like you, hooking up with even your homeroom teacher..."

"Don't be so mean, it's normal for some accidents to happen between men and women, and I'm an adult too."

The boy couldn't help but take a sip of soda. Why are you talking about such an embarrassing topic? Do you think you want this to happen?

Ugh.

A boy's journey to becoming a hero often begins with helpless troubles.

"This seems to clear you of the fact that you have relationships with so many girls. Is this your rhetoric?"

Oreki Gen replied with amusement: "I didn't deny it. Does this have anything to do with the question you asked me?"

Qingye Liang nodded.

"Of course it is related. I have always believed that the value of a person's memory is related to the people around him at the time. Not everyone is like you. With so many special girls around you, the memories you have preserved are probably also very special. That's why I'm curious, do you think your campus life is interesting?"

Interesting?

Is it just fun?

But it's so fucking interesting.

You don’t know when you will die at the hands of someone, and you don’t know how bloody and cruel the death will be. Isn’t that interesting?

Oreki Gen thought about it for a moment.

"First of all, I don't think it's necessarily the people around you who can leave you with precious memories of a period of time. It could be a gust of wind beside you, or it could be the afternoon sunshine you see when you look up from your desk one day, and then when you wake up, it feels like a lifetime ago and you can never go back."

Qingye Ryo blinked.

"What's next?"

The boy smiled and said, "Secondly, every memory of everyone is special. It's just that most of us are good at thinking that others are special, but we ignore the specialness around us."

Qingye Liang thought about it, then sighed softly.

"It seems like there's really nothing special, at least that's how I remember it. It seems like I just studied and made a few friends... Now, apart from the red leaves, there's no contact. There aren't many happy things in my memory, but rather aspirations or worries about the future."

"This is good, at least it's simple."

"What about you? At this time, do you have any aspirations or thoughts about the future?"

Oreki Gen turned his head and looked straight at Kiyono Ryo.

"Can I say that my childhood dream was to be a policeman?"

Qingye Liang couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Don't tease me. At least your current behavior seems to have completely forgotten your original intention."

"How can you say that...I look bad?"

"It's not that bad, but I think you'd be pretty scary if there were no legal constraints."

"Same idea, eh."

The boy sighed.

And Qingye Liang got up promptly to pay the bill.

It seemed to be the perfect timing, without the possibility of the situation becoming awkward at all.

The parking lot is not accessible, so you still need to walk a distance after leaving the store.

Walking in such an autumn breeze, it seems that in addition to feeling the coolness, I also feel a rare sense of freedom.

Two people were walking on the street. There weren't many people around, probably because this area wasn't very busy.

The cold moon hangs lonely above our heads, looking down indifferently at everyone in the world, but without leaving any memory.

"Lily is a very lonely person."

I listened to the unique sound of the other person's boots, but heard these words.

Oreki Gen looked over, saw her beautiful profile, and stared ahead, feeling a little depressed.

"is it?"

"Yeah." She nodded, then leaned against the side of the road and lit a cigarette.

The smoke was lingering, blurring her pretty face.

"She has been like this since she was little, when I first saw her. She was very weak, very small, and not in good health, as if she would fall down if the wind blew. It was very distressing. When my father told me that she would be my sister in the future... I told myself at that time that I must protect her, take good care of her, and make her happy."

She took a puff of her cigarette, and the smoke rose and then disappeared, like countless bubbles.

She looked at Oreki Gen in the smoke and the light of the cigarette butt.

"When she saw me, she would hide behind her mother and dare not look me in the eye. When I asked her her name, she would stammer and be unable to answer. Her favorite thing to do is to lock herself in the room and fold paper cranes. Do you know how she answered when I asked her why she folded paper cranes?"

Oreki Gen shook his head.

The woman smiled.

"She said...if you fold 10,000 paper cranes, you can bring back the person you want to see. I asked her who she wanted to come back, and she said she wanted her father to come back."

Oreki Gen felt a little touched by these things, but he didn't know whether he should comfort him or pretend to be relaxed and resolve the issue.

He suddenly asked with some curiosity.

"So did it finally reach 10,000?"

Qingye Liang smiled and shook his head.

"Of course not. It's not because she couldn't do it, but she later realized that her father was determined to leave her and her mother, and there was no possibility of him coming back. Paper cranes can't talk, but people will continue to grow up. Growing up is not necessarily good, because you will understand some cruel realities and begin to understand that this world is not something that can be achieved by wishing for it."

Oreki Gen looked at the other person with emotion.

"It's hard to imagine that the current store manager is the same person as the little girl you mentioned."

Qingye Liang exhaled a puff of hazy smoke, which seemed particularly clear under the cool night sky, and seemed even more hazy.

"It's hard to imagine... At first I did everything I wanted to do. I successfully became close friends with Lily, listened to her concerns patiently, and took care of her feelings. Even though she wasn't good at making friends and didn't like interpersonal relationships, she was the first person I thought of during any festival. I just didn't expect that the accident that followed would change everything."

Oreki Xian leaned against the fence on the side of the road, watching the cars speeding past on the road.

Say it softly.

"But it's not your fault. It can be attributed to your father's recklessness at the time, but why should you be blamed?"

Qingye Liang shook his head in distress.

"I don't know... maybe she felt that my father and I were truly related by blood. At that time, she was in pain and paranoia, and she felt from the bottom of her heart that she should hate the entire family? In fact, she hasn't told me why yet... But the purpose is still the same. If she is willing to go back and take a look at her father, the family will be complete. As for whether she will still hate me like this... It's actually not important."

Oreki Gen thought about it and decided not to jump to conclusion.

Sometimes humans are very childish and paranoid animals.

Because of some strange ideas, one may insist on hating something that is related to it.