Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 319: Sticky (Unbanned Version!)
"Human shame is a weakness that is easily exploited. Lan, let me help you practice."

"...Please get out of here, you pervert! Your true nature is showing now, aren't you?"

"I'm serious. For example, did you and Sonoko sleep together?"

"!!! What nonsense are you talking about! You..."

"Look, you've lost your composure. If we were on the court, I would have taken a point from you. If we were enemies, you might have been killed."

"…Hina, you are really despicable."

"Hahaha, I call this effective. Although there is an element of surprise attack, you should understand what I mean, Lan. There was another case where a sulfide gas leak suddenly occurred in a public hot spring. All the men ran out and survived, but 70% of the women died. Do you know why?"

"Because women are shy and have to wear clothes, they are slower to escape. I understand, Hotaru, you should take advantage of others' shame instead of being taken advantage of by others, right?"

"That's right, Lan. Vulgar news is often a good way to divert people's attention."

……

……

The above is part of the conversation between Xiaolan and Hotaru on the deck of the cruise ship early this morning.

When the police surrounded Ian's apartment on a large scale and the situation was on the verge of collapse, and it seemed there was no escape, these words suddenly echoed in Xiaolan's mind.

Taking advantage of others’ shame…

Not only that, she also recalled the principle of "invisibility" that Yingsheng once told her.

It's very simple, just let others turn a blind eye.

When these two thoughts came together, Xiaolan looked at the unconscious Vermouth on the ground, and suddenly a bold idea emerged in her mind that could help her avoid the police search.

Even though the policemen downstairs were obviously aware of the existence of disguise, they would even make faces at their companions from time to time to make fun of them.

Even though they have been on guard against disguise to this extent, Xiaolan is still somewhat confident.

Having made up her mind, Xiaolan leaned over and pinched Vermouth's philtrum.

After a while, Vermouth woke up slowly. After seeing the face in front of her clearly, her eyes were full of surprise.

"Angel? Why is it you?"

Vermouth propped herself up and looked around, and found that the wisteria on the balcony was lush and leafy. She had returned to 2602, Mizuki Hotaru's home.

But the oriole that she had previously thought was "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind" was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Mizuno Rena?" asked Vermouth.

I have to say that she reacted very quickly. She asked "Mizunashi Rena" instead of "Kil", so that she could make some judgments from Xiaolan's answer.

"The code name member of the organization, Kiel, is of course dead." Xiaolan said.

"what?!"

Vermouth glanced at the sunlight on the balcony and confirmed that she should not have been unconscious for too long. Even if Kiel was subdued by Angel, it was unlikely that he had been tortured into revealing any information. After all, she was someone who had resisted the truth serum in the past.

Then there is only one possibility.

Vermouth immediately came to a guess: "Angel, you weren't knocked out by her at all, were you just pretending before?"

If Angel hadn't heard the conversation between himself and Kiel, there was no way he would have known Kiel's code name!

Xiaolan smiled and said, "She used too little strength."

Of course, the actual situation was not like this. She did faint at that time and only woke up later due to external stimulation.

But she had no obligation to tell Vermouth the truth, so she just left it that way for now.

It can also undermine Vermouth's confidence so that she won't be too distracted and refuse to cooperate with the next plan.

Xiaolan said: "The police will be here soon. They will judge the disguise by pulling the face. Can your disguise skill prevent such detection?"

Vermouth shook her head: "After all, it's not real skin. As long as the force is strong enough, it will inevitably reveal flaws."

To be honest, she is feeling quite complicated right now.

Angel… …

You were originally a kind angel, why do you need to start hiding from the police?

And that guy Kil is such a loser. He couldn't succeed in the sneak attack even when he was attracting attention.

No, it succeeded.

But her body was so weak that she failed to knock Angel out, which is hard to evaluate.

And our own Angel, judging from his current performance, has not only become a Fallen Angel, but is also definitely in the battle sequence.

Alas, I really hit a snag this time.

He didn’t know that Cool Guy was not actually dead, and his identity was soon exposed; he didn’t know that Angel had become so powerful now, and he couldn’t defeat him at all.

But it's better to fall into Angel's hands than into Kil's hands. This is the only blessing I can be thankful for.

although,

It looks like they will fall into the hands of the police again soon.

"I have a plan and I need your cooperation."

When Vermouth's thoughts were drifting because of her ups and downs, Xiaolan suddenly spoke.

"What?" Vermouth asked.

Although the police were just a background board most of the time, as long as they piled up the numbers and used the stupid method of pulling faces, she wouldn't know how to avoid it.

"Ying has an identity. She is a firefly in the night club. You should know that." Xiaolan said.

"Yes, he's the top gigolo in Kabukicho."

Vermouth was a little confused. No matter what Mizuki Hotaru's identity was, how could it help the current situation?

"Don't you think so?"

There was a glimmer of shrewdness in Xiaolan's eyes, and she said sorry to Yingsheng in her heart.

Hotaru, you were the one who said that you should abandon your sense of shame when necessary, so you probably don't care about this kind of thing.

"The flower name Liuying is very feminine."

"?????"

Vermouth was completely confused and didn't understand what Xiaolan meant.

After Xiaolan explained it to her in detail, Vermouth was shocked and looked at Xiaolan as if she were an alien.

Xiaolan felt a little embarrassed by her gaze and turned her head away with a red face.

"I have made a great sacrifice. After this incident, I have become a shameless bad woman in the eyes of the police. If I didn't want to capture you alive, I would not have done this. I would have just thrown you off the top floor and the matter would have been over."

"........."

Vermouth was speechless. Was Angel saying the cruelest words in the most cowardly tone?

However, Xiaolan, who looked shy, finally regained some of her past charm. Vermouth looked at Xiaolan's delicate profile from a close distance, smelling the faint fragrance, and felt her heart melt. How could she not agree? Xiaolan immediately took Vermouth to the master bedroom, which also had a balcony in the same direction as the balcony in the living room.

She asked Vermouth to sit down beside the bed: "I'll go get you some clothes. Can you stay here and not run around?"

Vermouth glanced at the building across from the balcony: "Are you sure my teammates have left? We will both be in danger here."

"Yeah... probably. It's okay."

Vermouth's eyes flickered, and she vaguely understood something in her heart. She shook her head gently: "I'll go by myself. I'm definitely more skilled than you in this area, Angel."

"Okay, let's go together."

Xiaolan took Vermouth's hand and took her to the cloakroom, which was larger than the master bedroom, about 40 square meters. Several rows of hangers were filled with all kinds of clothes, ranging from simple solid white T-shirts to gorgeous kimonos with extremely intricate embroidery.

The ceiling without a main light casts soft light, and the slight hum of the fresh air fan never stops.

Vermouth noticed that the restraints on her hands had been untied, she moved her wrists, and couldn't help but pursed her lips and chuckled.

"Should I say it's worthy of being called Liuying? Most girls in the world don't have a dressing room like this."

"What about Chris Wynyard's?" Xiaolan asked.

“It’s twice as big as this one.”

Xiaolan curled her lips slightly, pushed Vermouth in, closed the door, and stood at the door herself.

"Go find some clothes yourself. I want them to cover up your figure. You should be familiar with them."

"Ah?"

Vermouth was quite curious: "According to what you said, Angel, we are looking for women's clothing. Are there any here?"

Xiaolan snorted, "There are all kinds of them. Before I woke you up, I took a quick look inside. There are also Hanfu and Lolita."

"This……"

Vermouth turned around and blinked: "Angel, aren't you worried? Shuiyue Hotaru is handsome and delicate, and he tends to be feminine. Plus, there are women's clothes here, maybe he has some other fetishes?"

Xiaolan rolled her eyes at her: "I wasn't sure about the previous firefly, but it shouldn't be the case now, and the bad health is a thing of the past. I saw it with my own eyes at the beach yesterday."

"I'm so jealous of him, he can be close to Angel..."

Xiaolan quickly pushed her again: "Please hurry up, the police are coming soon."

Once back to business, Vermouth moved quickly and picked out a lolita dress in the style of a bride, with a white base and light blue ribbons and woven flowers as embellishments.

"A big bustle is the most convenient way to hide your figure."

she explained.

Xiaolan had no objection to her professional choice, and after she changed her clothes, she reminded her of the makeup guidelines.

"It's just makeup, not a disguise. It doesn't matter if he doesn't look exactly like Hotaru, but there must be some clear features. Anyway, if the police see him, they will just think he is using makeup to modify his male features, and his skills are super good."

"Don't worry, Angel, I'm very experienced."

Vermouth started to put on makeup at the dressing table with great interest. She found that she could find almost any tools and cosmetics she wanted, and she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows slightly.

"Angel, for a guy living alone, these cosmetics are too complete. And unlike clothes, you can see signs of recent use."

"I know, I know. Just put on your makeup. If Ying wants to wear women's clothes, I will wear men's clothes." Xiaolan said without any concern.

"........."

Of course, Vermouth didn't care about these things. She said them mainly to tease Angel, but Angel herself didn't care either, so she didn't know what to say.

Oh no, Angel has really fallen.

It’s all the fault of that bastard Shuiyue Yingsheng. I don’t know what he says to Angel every day.

"I mean, there may have been other women living here before."

Vermouth changed the subject and thought that Angel would finally care about it now.

Xiaolan still said casually: "I know what I've said. It should be the Xuesong classmate whose identity you replaced. Although Ying never told me clearly, they both showed up together on Sunday afternoon, so I was roughly sure of it. After confirming your true appearance before, it was naturally 100% certain."

"Eh???"

Vermouth was shocked: "Suiyue Hotaru is living with another woman. Angel, as his girlfriend, don't you care at all?"

"Of course I care, but we're both pretty weird, so that's okay." Xiaolan glanced at her, "And the main problem is with you, right? If you hadn't done anything to Xuesong, she wouldn't have been left with nowhere to go."

Vermouth was speechless and put on makeup silently.

Xiaolan looked at her profile for a few seconds and walked towards her, "You replaced Xuesong's identity just to date Shinichi?"

Vermouth didn't want to answer this question. She pointed to her neck in the round mirror and suggested, "Should I put a ribbon around my neck? When I use the voice of Mizuki Hotaru, those people will think I'm covering my Adam's apple."

Xiaolan walked behind her and looked into the round mirror.

Maybe good-looking people always look alike, with delicate facial features. Plus with Vermouth's amazing makeup skills, her face now is at least three-quarters similar to Yingsheng's.

Taking into account the apparent excuse of "firefly-born women's clothing", the similarity will be further increased.

It's enough to deal with the police's slapping of faces.

But Xiaolan was still a little dissatisfied and frowned slightly: "You look too innocent now, and with your clothes, you look just like Her Royal Highness the Princess. I can't let those policemen feel embarrassed at a glance. Do you have a more exaggerated outfit?"

Vermouth has also been looking at the mirror, with her brows slightly lowered, and a gentle boyish voice like Shuiyue Yingsheng emanates from her red lips.

"I was born to wear women's clothes. How can I be so beautiful?"

"..."

To be honest, when the beauty in the mirror made the sound of a firefly, Xiaolan felt that her heart was actually touched.

Soft ribbon, icy face, thin red lips, young voice...

When they are mixed together, there is an indescribable peculiar charm.

Xiaolan quickly shook her head: "No, no, it just won't work. We must change to a more direct style."

“Eh… in that case…”

Vermouth thought about it, and his eyes lit up: "How about SM? You can put a collar around my neck."

“!!! No, this…this!”

Xiaolan was stunned. Although she had prepared herself mentally and knew clearly that her reputation would decline, this degree was still too much!
"There's no time to change into other clothes, Angel. The police should be here soon."

Vermouth stood up and found a motorcycle-style riveted jacket among the many clothes. She took off a black collar with spikes from it and put it on her snow-white neck.

She went back to look in the mirror and had a pitiful expression on her face, just like a slave princess.

"Not bad, Angel, just one last step."

"What?" Xiaolan asked in surprise.

Vermouth pursed her red lips and smiled playfully.

"Tie me up."

(End of this chapter)