Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 409: Hotaru and Kiyoko...it's a tragic love story!
Xiaolan had already let go of Vermouth's hand.

It was impossible for her to have any good feelings towards someone who had committed so many evil things. Before, at most, she had given him end-of-life care out of sympathy.

"Where to send her?" Xiaolan asked.

"It's still the research room of Schindler Company. Sorry for the trouble." Aoyagi Chisou looked at Ai again, "Your mother is now on the American Island. When Master goes there to take control, she will call you. I'll ask you to take care of Miss Kiyoko here first."

Xiao Ai nodded heavily, with a brighter light in her eyes than ever before.

Then he bowed to Qingzi again.

"terribly sorry!"

……

……

It's half past four in the morning.

Listening to the sounds coming from the two phones, Haibara Ai couldn't help but cover her face and cry, feeling that all the happiness in the world was rushing towards her.

"I'm sorry, Shiho."

"Because of the robbery of the Beihua branch of the Shiling Bank and the subsequent raid, I hid in Yamanashi Prefecture and never knew about your situation."

"It wasn't until tonight, when things got so serious in Tokyo, that I saw your name on the Internet and learned that you had also escaped, and that you had captured Gin."

The sister who had been out of contact for a long time finally reappeared. Huibara Ai sniffed her nose and kept wiping her tears.

"I'm glad you're okay, sister. The organization has been destroyed. From now on, we don't have to worry about Gin anymore. We can always be together and live in the sunshine."

Gin, who was lying on his stomach, had his eyes twitching, but he didn't say anything.

After the death of Chianti and Cohen, Miyano Akemi called and mocked them arrogantly. Combined with the previous speculation, Gin certainly knew that she had always been in Hotaru's hands.

But now that Miyano Akemi herself is willing to cooperate with Hotaru, it would be better for him, a prisoner, to behave himself.

the other side.

Miyano Akemi looked back at the houseplate with "Huaying" written on it with a complicated look in her eyes. Suddenly, a horn sounded from the street. She sighed softly in her heart and smiled gently.

"I'm going back to Tokyo tonight."

"Ok!"

Huihara Ai's tone was full of anticipation.

"Amei, Shiho, you...I'm sorry. I...I'm sorry for you."

Another gentle voice with some hesitation.

It had been a long time since she heard this voice that had only appeared in her dreams for all these years. Childhood memories suddenly came flooding back, and the tears that she had been forcibly suppressed burst out. When the clouds and rain finally stopped and the sky was dotted with thousands of stars, Miyano Akemi burst into tears.

"Mother……"

"I miss you so much, Mom..."

Emotions are contagious, and the two people on the other end of the phone were in the same mood as her, with tears of joy in their eyes.

But the three of them were all quite calm after all, and it didn’t take long for them to wipe away their tears.

"Mom, when will you come back?" Xiao Ai asked.

When Elena Miyano "died", Haibara Ai was still a baby less than one year old. She had no memory of her mother at all, and Miyano Akemi rarely mentioned the past to her afterwards.

Haibara Ai is rational by nature, so she doesn't have much real sense of "family". All her knowledge comes from books and observations of other people's families.

Having lived in a cold organization for a long time, she certainly had expectations for an abstract warm family.

But when her family suddenly appeared before her, she felt inexplicably at a loss.

Now his tone has become a little nervous.

Elena could understand her feelings, because she was in a similar situation now. She had been roughly aware of her daughter's situation for the past ten years, but she was under strict control of Karasuma Renya and could not and dared not touch her own flesh and blood.

Having been absent from my child's growth for eighteen years, I am undoubtedly an unqualified mother.

Now suddenly he jumps out to recognize his relatives...

It made her feel deeply guilty.

"I……"

Elena's voice was a little hesitant, and she turned to look at the man in a black suit who was leaning against the door and tapping on his phone. His profile was so breathtaking under the cold moonlight, and the peerless charm between his eyebrows was even more touching than the mermaid rumored on this island.

"What's wrong?" Yingsheng looked up and asked.

"Shirley... no, Ai asked when we will go back." Elena said softly.

"I'm sorry, because the equipment and experiments here are very important. Could you please hand over to the Suzuki Group before returning to Tokyo?" Yingsheng said, "You will probably be able to see Ai this afternoon at the latest. If you really miss her, I can ask someone to bring her here."

"No, thank you Mr. Shuiyue."

There was actually a hint of relief in Elena's tone; after all, she was not fully prepared.

When Xiao Ai on the other end of the phone heard this, she also felt inexplicably relieved. While blaming herself in her heart, she said goodbye to Elena politely.

After hanging up the phone, she had a lot to say to her sister.

But a car horn sounded again from Miyano Akemi's end, and she said, "See you in the afternoon," and hung up the phone.

The ward, which had been quite lively before, fell silent again.

Haibara Ai looked at the two mobile phones that were gradually turning black, and at her own lonely reflection on them. She couldn't help but feel a little doubtful in a trance. Was everything before just an illusion?
Suddenly, a suppressed slight moan was heard in her ears, and Huibara Ai's scattered consciousness immediately gathered. She looked up at the beautiful woman on the bed in front of her who was on the verge of breaking.

"Ms. Kiyoko, are you okay?"

After she asked, she felt that she had said something stupid and quickly held Qingzi's hand.

"I'm sorry, Suigetsu-kun said that he can't give you any more anesthesia. If it affects your consciousness, after the brain scan, that state will be solidified in the form of neural links, and it may affect your personality in the future."

Qingzi smiled vaguely with a smile like flying jade dust on her lips and shook her head gently, "Nothing, I'm just curious, Ying's idea is too surreal, can it really succeed?"

"This……"

Xiao Ai hesitated and said, "Judging from Schindler's company's human-computer interaction technology, they have a deep understanding of the human brain. It is not impossible to scan the brain and upload human consciousness to the network to transform it into digital life."

"Even if your consciousness cannot maintain itself on the Internet, Noah's Ark can probably solidify your consciousness at that moment and condense it in the amber of time."

"Noah's Ark can also read your memory completely and simulate the scenes with CG technology. When your clone grows up, it will use those memories to create the brain in the vat."

"Then that person should be you."

"There is a break in your continuity from our perspective."

"But from your own perspective, it was probably just a moment, and everything was resolved. You have never changed." Qingzi was silent after hearing this.

What is "I"? This question is indeed a bit complicated.

But she didn't dwell on it for too long, and smiled, "Ying can always handle everything. I've always been taken care of by you, so why should I think so much about it?"

Huiyuan Ai felt a little relieved, and suddenly remembered the conversation between her and Yingsheng, and asked quietly: "What was your previous deal?"

"I am a very selfish person and I also lack a sense of security," Qingzi said.

"When my identity was replaced by Vermouth a month ago and I had to live in hiding, I became quite anxious about the current situation."

"When Vermouth found me in the hotel, something that even Hotaru hadn't anticipated, it made me feel like my life was out of control."

"Although I was rescued by Ying later, the last time I saw him was when he was tortured to a bloody mess in the winery. It was hard for me to feel safe."

"I asked to see him."

"He said he had a play to perform, so he asked me to go to Huaying Xiwang's house first and he would come over later."

"I said that life was too much for me and I wanted to go back to the way it was before."

"He was silent for a few seconds, then proposed a deal to me. He said that I could fake my death before he solved all the problems, and I would never be in any danger again."

"I agreed."

Qingzi said it quite briefly, with a smile.

But Huiyuan Ai immediately understood the pain in her heart at that time, and said with complicated eyes: "You actually just wanted him to care about you at that time, but he actually said that kind of words. It's simply that his IQ is low."

"You know, Hotaru can almost read people's minds, it's impossible for him not to understand my thoughts." Qingzi smiled softly, "He would say that, it's only because he is tired of me and doesn't want to continue to accommodate me."

"He actually told me many times to speak frankly, and if I was too sentimental, he would just ignore me."

"So, it's mainly my problem."

"Absolutely not. Since he understood everything, it's his own problem to pretend to be dumb." Huiyuan Ai hesitated for two seconds, "And he definitely has you in his heart. The night after you left, when he was disguising myself, he subconsciously molded your face."

Saying sorry to Xiaolan in her heart, Huiyuan Ai continued: "One night after that, I saw him sitting under the wisteria trellis, looking very painful."

"I asked him what was going on, and he said..."

"The moon will bring him strength."

"Didn't he say before, when you were dying, that you two were each other's moon?"

"What he was talking about at that time was definitely you."

Qingzi's eyes trembled, and after a few breaths of silence, she asked, "What time of night is it exactly?"

"After 4:30 in the morning and before 5:00 in the morning." Huiyuan Ai answered immediately. Noticing that Qingzi's hands were subconsciously clenched, she suddenly remembered something and asked hurriedly, "You were also looking at the moon at that time, right? You agreed on that time to look at each other!"

"No, it's just a deal." Qingzi lowered her eyebrows slightly, "You know, Ying only pursues love, for this, he is willing to guarantee my lifelong safety and luxury."

"This……"

Huiyuan Ai didn't know what to say. She was silent for a while and muttered, "But I think it's not just that. Every time I mention you, his reaction is different from usual."

"If that's true, I'd be happy, but maybe he's just acting." Kiyoko smiled, "For example, the me who showed up at Teitan High School a few days ago, I didn't even know who I was. Do you think Hotaru's reaction to her was real?"

Huibara Ai was speechless.

Qingzi said: "That was just part of the deal. He found a substitute to scout the way for me. After making sure that I would not encounter any danger again, he notified me to return to Tokyo... No, it doesn't matter to him whether I return to Tokyo or not. He just needs love anyway."

Huihara Ai continued to remain silent.

Before she knew about this, she thought Yingsheng was very affectionate towards Qingzi, but after knowing this...

Alas, is that guy really heartless?
"I think, maybe it's not just that." Xiaolan's voice suddenly came from the phone in front of Vodka.

Huihara Ai's face froze and she turned to look.

Vodka looked innocent, raised his hands in surrender, and nodded in the direction of Gin.

Gin didn't move at all. When he saw Vodka's movements, his brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Vodka: "..."

Xiaolan ignored them and said calmly, "Hing has a special feeling for the moon. During the time I lived with him, he would quietly leave at 4:30 every night, no matter what the weather was like, and go to the balcony alone to look at the bright moon."

"He seemed to be going through a very horrific ordeal, what he called a 'borderline' death, until close to five when he went to the bathroom to clean himself off and would not return."

"I think that period of time must be very special for him, Xuesong-san, do you have any idea about it?"

The knuckles of Qingzi's fingers that were gripping the bed sheet were slightly white, completely different from the whiteness of her fingers.

She whispered, "Two months ago, that's when his past died."

"Were you with him at that time?" Xiaolan asked.

"No, but..." Qingzi hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "I was the cause of that incident."

Now, everyone was silent.

When the sound of a car horn broke the silence, Xiaolan continued, "Hina said that she would wither and die without love. You should be the first person to provide him with love. Can I ask when was the first time?"

Qingzi was silent.

"Then let me guess. It was the early morning of the second day after his rebirth, which is also the time period, right?" Xiaolan said, "Because I smelled a faint smell of blood in his living room that morning, which means that he went to Kabukicho without cleaning up the scene the day before. It must be very urgent."

"Not then, but earlier," said Qingzi.

"But when we arrived at the border, he was indeed able to survive because of your love," Xiaolan said.

"Actually... I've never been sure what the so-called 'love' of Ying is." Qingzi's voice was so distant, "What kind of feelings can be called love? Have I really loved him?"

"Honestly, I don't know myself."

Xiaolan was silent for a moment, took a deep breath, and said: "Ying said that because of your past experiences, you fell into a kind of self-torture. He had the ability to save you, but he didn't save you. He can only say sorry to you."

"I used to think it was because he didn't love you."

"But now it seems that he is also torturing himself. He loves you, but he dare not face that feeling directly."

Qingzi was speechless again.

"I'm sorry." Xiaolan said in a complicated tone, "I'll be at Schindler's laboratory soon. I hope the experiment will be successful. Then everything will still be in time."

After saying that, she hung up the phone.

(End of this chapter)