Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 20 Heart to Heart! Invitation!
Another twenty minutes later, the school doctor who was urgently called in carefully examined the injuries of Yingsheng and Xiaolan.

"It's not a big problem, young man. Just take some rest. I'm leaving now."

On the bench in the corner of the dojo, Yingsheng stared blankly at the school doctor's back for two seconds, then turned his head to look at Xiaolan, whose swollen knee was being treated with ice.

"She said this is not a big problem?"

Xiaolan sighed softly, "It might be troublesome to walk home later."

"Ah? What about tomorrow?"

"tomorrow?"

Xiaolan tilted her head in confusion, "It will be fine tomorrow. It's just a minor injury."

"hiss--"

Yingsheng took a breath, "Xiaolan, you are actually a biochemically modified person, right!"

Xiaolan rolled her eyes at him and said, "Call me senior."

"Forget it, I don't want to be special."

"Huh, someone must have deliberately wanted to keep a distance from me by only calling me by my last name."

"How do I know that everyone calls you by your name? I haven't paid attention to you before."

"I introduced myself at the beginning of the school year."

"Oh, I forgot that."

Yingsheng finally understood, "When you said I was polite to everyone, it was actually just a polite remark. I guess I don't know myself, I put on a stinky attitude and everyone keeps their distance from me."

"It's not that serious. Maybe everyone will mind at first, but because Suigetsu-kun is really excellent, everyone will get used to it slowly."

"It started two weeks ago?"

"Always been this way."

"Oh, that's okay."

Yingsheng added two ice packs to the already heated bucket and gently pressed his ankle. It was a little numb, so he applied a little more pressure and grimaced in pain.

Is this really going to be okay tomorrow?

"Did Mizuki really want to cripple my right leg at that time?" Xiaolan also changed the ice pack.

"Is the karate competition in nine days important to you?" Yingsheng asked back.

"Very important."

"So what about your life?"

Xiaolan was silent.

After a long sigh, "Mr. Shuiyue wanted to wake me up? But unfortunately, it failed."

"I really didn't expect you to be that strong. I should have used the backup hidden energy switch earlier." Yingsheng smiled, "But it should have had some effect. I think I'm still a pretty good punching bag."

"Yes Yes Yes."

Xiaolan snorted and looked at the piled-up folding chairs next to Yingsheng, quite speechless.

"Arm guards, elbow guards, wrist guards, leg armor and chest armor, plus the helmet and gloves before the game, why don't you just wear a full set of armor?"

"Haha, that one is too obvious to hide."

"So you really had this planned in advance, right?"

"It's just a precaution, so as to avoid being beaten to death by the female hero's stone-breaking punch."

"Huh, I was able to control my strength at the beginning."

"That's right, it was that kick that almost knocked me out." Yingsheng said helplessly: "I originally planned to defeat you in karate, but after that, I didn't dare to take it head-on even with the protective gear on, so I could only use some tricks."

"Because I noticed that after you put on the protective gear, you started to use your full strength."

"Oh, it turns out that I have done it all myself."

"That's how you become a qualified sandbag." Xiaolan smiled softly, "It would be even better if you can't hide."

"Hey - then you should go hit the telephone pole."

"No, Shuiyue-kun should improve his physical fitness as soon as possible, so that we can practice better together."

"I'll try my best... By the way, you usually hold back when you're sparring with others?" "What else can I do?"

"If you don't have any rivals at Teitan High School, then go find one at other schools. Suppressing yourself all the time will only waste your talent."

Xiaolan was silent for a few breaths, her voice muffled.

"Oh."

"Well, you haven't never thought about this aspect and have been thinking about how to date Kudo."

"Why mention him again?"

"You thought of it first."

"No."

"Okay, then just treat it as a small talk. What did you say to him when you got back yesterday? Something seems to be wrong with today's development."

Xiaolan was helpless: "I haven't told him yet."

"why?"

"Do not want to tell you."

Yingsheng curled his lips, "I can guess that you must have fallen into depression for no apparent reason. After staggering home, you had to take care of your drunken father. Time passed in a flash, and you didn't call Kudo."

Xiaolan glanced at him and said, "Are you a stalker?"

Yingsheng shrugged, "Do you still need to follow me? You look depressed, who can't see it?"

“My dad didn’t see that.”

"That's why I believe he was drunk. Otherwise, he wouldn't have failed to notice his own daughter's obvious psychological problems. He is a detective after all."

Xiaolan opened her mouth, wanting to say that her father was actually quite unreliable when he was sober.

But never mind, let's save his face.

"Let's talk about Kudo."

Yingsheng thought for a moment, "You must have failed to wake him up this morning, right? It seems that he is quite concerned about the accident the day before yesterday. Before he stops on his own, you'd better not take the initiative to look for him, otherwise he will only be more disgusted with you."

"I know, you were talking about holding us back yesterday."

Xiaolan sighed, "I don't know what kind of troublesome case it is. Even Shinichi couldn't solve it quickly."

She suddenly turned to look at Hotaru: "Wasn't Mizuki-kun with Shinichi the afternoon before yesterday? Can we..."

"No."

"Hey, I haven't finished talking yet."

"You didn't want to hear it yesterday, and I don't want to tell you now." Yingsheng glanced at her and said, "You can't help me anyway, so it's useless to know."

Xiaolan was silent for a while, then gritted her teeth and said, "Must Shuiyue-kun's words be so sharp?"

Yingsheng's lips curled up slightly, "Not bad."

"what?"

"You were able to express your dissatisfaction with me directly instead of just holding it in. Isn't that a big improvement compared to yesterday? It means that at least my efforts are not in vain."

Xiaolan looked at him steadily for a long time, then pursed her lips.

"why?"

"I told you, it's just for viewing the flowers."

"But doesn't Suigetsu-kun want to be in a relationship? Many people in the classroom and the dojo saw what happened this afternoon, and they might misunderstand."

"A teenage kid's head shouldn't be filled with pink bubbles, right? Passion, bond, and friendship are the main themes of boys' comics."

"..."

Xiaolan was speechless: "You are also in adolescence."

"So I'll take you as my senior and companion." Yingsheng invited, "I'm going to cause trouble for a loan shark company this Friday night. There might be a conflict then. Can you help me?"

"Huh?" Xiaolan was slightly stunned.

"Are you serious?"

(End of this chapter)