Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 256: Xiaolan gradually goes out of line

Hotaru was thoughtful, would this gentle characteristic make Ai think of her sister?
"That's indeed a very suitable person to talk to."

After taking a taxi to Nichimi TV, Hotaru was about to go in to ask when he met a lady who had just left the TV station. He went up to her and started a conversation, and soon he got Rena Mizunashi's contact number.

He returned to the waiting taxi and asked the driver to drive to Ian's apartment. Hoto sent Rena Mizunashi's phone number to Haibara Ai and asked her to contact her herself.

Mizuki Hotaru's identity is in the open, so of course he cannot have any form of private contact with Shirley, so finding a phone number is enough.

Halfway through the journey, Xiaolan received a call from Kudo Shinichi. She turned on the speakerphone and heard:
"Xiaolan, can you come to the hospital to take care of Uncle Maori? He is in a very bad mood now."

"Eh? What exactly happened?"

Xiaolan was quite surprised and looked up at Yingsheng.

Yingsheng spread his hands and said, "Kudo, tell the truth, Xiaolan will make her own judgment."

Kudo Shinichi was silent for a few breaths: "Why don't you say it?"

"Because I think this kind of thing is insignificant, but since you mentioned it, let Xiaolan hear it. And if you say it yourself, it can also prevent me from evading the important issues, right? Of course, you'd better be more objective yourself."

"it is good."

After a brief silence, Kudo Shinichi told the story of what had happened before without hiding anything, including Kanako Mie's spontaneous behavior and Towako who took the initiative to call Kogoro Mori over after Hotaru.

Xiaolan was a little shocked at first, but after hearing Kudo Shinichi's retelling of Hotaru's thoughts, she gradually calmed down. After Kudo Shinichi finished speaking, she thought for a moment and then asked:
"What was Dad's attitude when he talked to Miss Towako? Did he try to hide it from you at first? What was your first reaction after you found out?"

Xiaolan's questions were clear and logical, but Kudo Shinichi frowned slightly: "Did Shuiyue ask you to ask these questions?"

He felt that Xiaolan seemed to have been PUAed too deeply.

Yingsheng raised his eyebrows and was about to ask, "You are peeking at people through the crack of the door, right?"

But before he could open his mouth, Xiaolan said, "Yes, shouldn't these questions be asked?" She raised her head and blinked her innocent eyes at Yingsheng.

Yingsheng curled his lips slightly and said nothing, then he heard Kudo Shinichi on the speaker:
"Once you try to test the strength of a piece of glass, it will inevitably end up breaking. A malicious test can only mean that the tester has ulterior motives. Human nature cannot stand the test."

Yingsheng chuckled, “That makes sense, but not much.

Kudo, let me ask you, is Mr. Maori a father? Is he a husband? Is he a normal person with sound intelligence and who has just undergone an education?

You can deny everything, but he is definitely not made of glass, and Miss Towako has definitely not done anything out of line, so it can't be considered a bottom-line test.

Is it right? "

Kudo Shinichi retorted: "But you know that Towako is different to him."

"What's the difference? Also, can you answer the previous questions first?"

Yingsheng waited for two seconds without any response, then took out his cell phone and dialed Towako's number: "Forget it, your hesitation is really annoying, I'll just ask myself."

The call was connected quickly, and Yingsheng asked the questions that Xiaolan had just asked. There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, and then a gentle voice came out.

He doesn't talk much, in short, Kogoro Mori is a very restrained gentleman.

Yingsheng thanked him, apologized for what happened before, and hung up.

What does this mean?
Hotaru chuckled and said, "Kudo, please tell Mr. Mori what I just said later. I guess he will be ashamed. Whether he is a gentleman or not is still debatable, but Miss Towako is a real lady."

Kudo Shinichi was silent.

"Okay, that's it. Do you have anything else to say?" Yingsheng said, "According to what Miss Towako said, Mr. Mori should be in a relaxed and calm mood now. He is definitely not in a bad mood. Did you misunderstand something, Kudo?"

"Uncle Maori is Xiaolan's father after all."

Yingsheng was not qualified to answer this question, so he closed his eyes and said nothing.
Three seconds later, Xiaolan smiled gently: "Please, Shinichi, play Animal World for Dad. A bad mood will affect his recovery."

Yingsheng's mouth corners slightly raised...

"Xiao Lan, you can't just listen to Shui Yue on everything. You have to make your own judgment."

Yingsheng's mouth drooped.

What bullshit is this guy talking about.

But before he could open his mouth to refute, Xiaolan smiled and said, "Because I think what Shuiyue-kun said makes sense, and it would be useless for me to go to my father's place."

Kudo Shinichi said hurriedly: "How can it be useless? You are his daughter."

Xiaolan frowned slightly: "Shinichi, I feel like you care too much about your father. Didn't you hate him very much before? Is there any other purpose?"

Kudo Shinichi was silent for a few breaths: "Do you care about Suigetsu more than Uncle Maori?"

Xiaolan sighed softly, "I see. Yes, we should hurry to the date now. See you Shinichi."

Without waiting for the person on the other end to speak, Xiaolan hung up the phone, turned it to silent mode, and put it away.

He turned to look at Yingsheng, who had a rather helpless expression, stretched out his hands, grabbed his shoulders and leaned towards him.

Come closer.

The silence lasted for a long time. When Ian's apartment passed by the edge of the window, Xiaolan finally spoke in a muffled voice:
"what is this?"

"Even if you can't be lovers, you can still be friends. Kudo's starting point is good. I hope you won't be deceived by a scumbag like me." Yingsheng said calmly.

"Is that all?"

"You won't know how to cherish something until you lose it. Maybe this is also the reason. And I provoked him before, saying that I would bring another female companion to the bar tonight. When he accused me of not being sincere to you, I said that no matter what you do, it has nothing to do with him."

Xiaolan chuckled: "It's really too much. No wonder Shinichi is so angry. What is your purpose?"

"Of course I hope he can learn to cherish the people around him, and not make the same mistake again if he finds Xuesong in the future."

"That shouldn't be the case. They get along very well."

"Who knows what Xuesong's true identity is? What if she is just an experienced acting expert? Of course, everything has to wait until Kudo finds the person first. I'm just giving him a little motivation. I hope he won't go astray."

"Running away means he's coming back to find me? That's impossible."

"That's impossible to say."

As they were talking, the car had already stopped downstairs of Ian's apartment. Yingsheng got out of the car and saw a familiar figure in a blue dress on the steps next to him. He was slightly surprised.

This person was the woman he had approached outside the Nichimizu TV station. She had a nice figure and good looks, dark brown wavy hair and gold earrings. She looked quite noble. Her name seemed to be Ikezawa Yuko. Did she also live here? It was quite a coincidence.

It was already 5:50, and Okino Yoko still hadn't come back. Xiaolan looked at the time and couldn't help but say, "Artists are really hard-working. They even have to work on weekends."

"It's just that their rest periods are different from those of office workers, and they earn more." Yingsheng glanced around and pointed to a western restaurant. "Let's go eat first. The game this afternoon was great. Kyogoku said that you're making great progress."

Xiaolan snorted: "You have been chatting with Sonoko the whole time. You only watched two of my four games seriously at most."

"No way, I was watching you very carefully and even found a new flaw in your movements."

Yingsheng looked around to see if there was anyone around, and then he kicked the electric pole next to him sideways. The electric pole was intact, so he kept kicking and looked at Xiaolan, reminding her, "Pay attention to the position of my left toe."

Xiaolan followed the instructions and saw Yingsheng's toes still pointed forward. She frowned slightly and said, "You can't use your waist strength like this. This is a very non-standard movement."

"That's right, but being non-standard actually has its advantages." Yingsheng controlled the speed and slowly lowered his right leg, "Pay attention to my upper body and waist and hips to see if there are any obvious changes."

Xiaolan stared at the part that Yingsheng mentioned, without paying any attention to the whole cow, until Yingsheng put his feet completely on the ground and asked if he had any thoughts, then she vaguely thought of something.

"Mr. Shuiyue's kicking posture is very non-standard. He relies entirely on his leg muscles, and basically does not mobilize the strength of other parts of the body." Xiaolan paused for a few breaths. "Although the force is not enough, it is concealed enough to avoid being read by the opponent?"

"correct."

Yingsheng smiled and said, "It's similar to what I said last time in school. After you throw a right straight punch, your body will habitually lean to the left. This is too easy to predict. Logically, this situation will only occur when your lower body is unstable, but your kicking skills are obviously super strong.

I didn't understand it before, but now I think it's because you are too impatient, always pursuing combos, and at the same time you are too serious when learning moves, striving to make every attack perfect and meet the standards perfectly.

This causes problems with the connection, making your entire movement look a little erratic."

Xiaolan seemed to be thinking about it, but still asked: "Isn't it good to meet the standards?"

"If you're just doing a single move, then it's fine if it meets the standards, but since you're fighting someone, you have to consider fluidity."

Yingsheng pointed to his waist.

"Suppose you attack me and your right fist misses, and I use this to hit you to the left of the center axis of your body, is it more likely that you will die there?"

Xiaolan nodded hesitantly, then asked with a strange look on her face: "Do you carry that with you all the time?"

Yingsheng lifted his clothes, revealing nothing. He shrugged: "I'm not a terrorist."

"..."

Xiaolan was speechless for two seconds, then returned to the point: "You mean to save your strength, right? Don't use old moves, always leave room for change."

Yingsheng gave her a thumbs up: "You are very clear, remember what Bruce Lee said, flow like water, don't be bound by 'form'."

"But……"

Xiaolan hesitated and said, "I feel like that would be very powerless."

"Killing people... ahem, what I mean is, in combat, strength is secondary, and accuracy comes first."

Yingsheng touched his eyebrows, nose wings, jaw, temples, throat, chest center, ribs, joints, etc. in turn and shrugged.

"That's right. The human body has so many weaknesses. As long as you can touch them, you can knock someone down without much effort."

Xiaolan hesitated for two seconds and said faintly: "You just said murder, right?"

Yingsheng looked confused: "Really? You must have heard it wrong."

"........."

Xiaolan rolled her eyes at him but didn't dwell on it. She had long known that Yingsheng was an outlaw, as was she herself.

Xiaolan thought about it and nodded: "What you said makes sense, but I am participating in a karate competition."

Yingsheng shook his head: "I didn't ask you to commit a foul, I just asked you to stay calm on the court... no, in any battle.

Unless you want to suppress your opponent's special move or prevent him from escaping, combos are completely unnecessary and a precise attack will only require one.

correct.

Besides, weren't you born with supernatural powers? It wouldn't matter if you only retained a third of your strength. You can still defeat the enemy.

If you think about it this way, it seems like a good idea to pretend to go all out and lure the opponent into revealing a flaw, or to force the opponent to reveal a flaw and then win with one strike."

Bang——! ! !
Xiaolan punched the nearby electric pole, and a "well" shape appeared on her forehead. She asked with a grin, gritting her teeth, "Who do you think was born with supernatural powers?"

Yingsheng's gaze extended along her arm, first to the small crater on the electric pole, then to the dense spider-web-like cracks. It seemed that something had just rubbed against his neck, was it flying cement fragments?

Yingsheng turned his gaze back to Xiaolan and asked in confusion: "You mean, your strength is not innate, but acquired through hard work?"

"........."

"I'm sorry, I just ignored your efforts with just one sentence. I really shouldn't have done that." Yingsheng put his hands together and apologized, then became excited again, "Can this level be achieved through practice? Then I have to work harder."

"........."

Xiaolan snorted coldly and withdrew her hand. She was 100% sure that Yingsheng was pretending. How could this guy not understand what she meant.

"I'm sorry that I care about this. I've always wanted to be a Yamato Nadeshiko."

"Um……"

Hotaru wondered, "Is there a conflict between being strong and being a Yamato Nadeshiko? It would be more convenient to do housework this way."

"...The current aesthetic standard is fair, thin and young, OK? Like Xuesong." Xiaolan said unhappily, "Haven't you noticed that almost all the girls have reduced their appetite since Xuesong came to our class."

"I didn't notice. Anyway, don't imitate her. She was just pretending."

The two continued to walk towards the restaurant. When they crossed the zebra crossing, Xiaolan suddenly turned around and looked:
"Did you digress from some important topic?"

"No, you think too much..."

"Sonoko, you were talking about this before, right?"

"........."

(End of this chapter)