Conan: When Shinjiu and Maolilan swap bodies

Qingze walked out of the safety passage and came to a row of dusty public lockers.

There are no security cameras here; it's a paid storage area, and it's completely empty right now.

Enter the password, click.

The cabinet door popped open.

He took out a paper bag from inside, which had a cute cartoon logo printed on it.

Open the bag and check.

Inside, besides a perfectly sealed cup of milk tea, there was a transparent gift bag tied with a ribbon, filled with handmade cookies, colorful candies, and several exquisitely shaped chocolates.

A joyful smile spread across Qingze's eyes.

Back in the emergency exit, Gin leaned against the wall, smoking, his gaze fixed on Aozawa.

He reverted to his carefree attitude, carrying a milk tea bag that seemed out of place among them.

He took out his milk tea, inserted a straw, and took a sip.

"Mission accomplished. Let's go."

Gin: "..."

......

In the underground parking lot.

Subaru Okiya sat in the driver's seat, not in a hurry to drive. He glanced casually at the children in the back seat through the rearview mirror and spoke in a conversational tone:

"I think I just saw Mr. Qingze talking to a man with silver hair?"

“Yes, yes!” Ayumi immediately chimed in, gesturing with her little hands, “That person had completely white hair and was dressed in all black, he looked so scary…”

"What did they say?" Subaru Okiya's voice was gentle, with just the right amount of curiosity.

"What did that white-haired guy say... Vermouth?" Mitsuhiko struggled to recall the unfamiliar word, scratching his head in confusion. "It sounded like the name of a bar?"

"and then?"

Yuan Tai eagerly continued, "It seems that Brother Qingze didn't understand, so he took the initiative to say that his name was Qingze and gave the other party a business card! Then the white-haired person suddenly reached out and plucked a hair from Brother Qingze's head, and then didn't say anything more."

The children pieced together the brief but memorable confrontation they had just witnessed, one after another.

The atmosphere gradually shifted from initial tension to a sharing tinged with excitement—after all, this was a rare adventure.

“I bet they might be long-lost twin brothers!” Mitsuhiko stated his reasoning earnestly. “They look alike! And they both claim to be orphans…”

He continued his analysis, his small face filled with seriousness, "Perhaps they were separated when they were very young, so they had no idea that the other existed."

Ai Haibara sat in the back seat, head down, without saying a word.

Subaru Okiya listened quietly, his eyes slightly narrowed behind his glasses.

What he wants is a breakthrough regarding Koniak, and perhaps that will come soon.

Chapter 526 Cannot be Judged by Common Sense

Aozawa and Gin walked back through the dimly lit passage, one after the other.

Qingze's face was mostly hidden in shadow, with only his well-defined jawline and pale lips visible.

He carried the milk tea bag with the cartoon logo in one hand and a cup of milk tea with a straw in the other, sipping it slowly and occasionally chewing on the toppings inside.

A warm, sweet fragrance drifted out almost imperceptibly, strangely mingling with the still-lingering chill emanating from him.

Gin walked ahead of him, a full two meters away, his steps cold and hard, radiating a strong sense of rejection that said, "I don't know the guy behind me" and "Stay away from me."

Subaru Okiya's car slowly passed by in the driveway not far away. His gaze swept over the scene, taking in the whole thing.

His gaze couldn't help but fall on the cup of milk tea in Koniak's hand, which was completely out of place with the style of the painting.

He had assumed that the presence of both Gin and Koniak at the same time must be for some important mission or dangerous operation.

result……

Koniak only came to buy milk tea? And he even drank it on the spot?

I feel inexplicably disillusioned...

But thinking about it, someone who would ask him if he needs to lift his hair when he goes to the toilet, or if he'll get heat rash in hot weather, is definitely not someone you can guess according to common sense.

He was so impressed with Gin that he also developed a stereotype of Koniak, who had a similar temperament to Gin.

For someone like Koniak, whose mental state is somewhat abnormal and cannot be understood by common sense, everything he does can be explained.

Noticing the gaze, Aozawa looked up, gave Okiya Subaru a cold glance, and got into the passenger seat.

Gin stood outside the car, lit another cigarette, and didn't rush inside.

After finishing his cigarette, he checked the car before getting into the driver's seat.

"Let's go back to base to rest."

Qingze yawned.

These past few days have been filled with fragmented sleep, with the two of us taking turns driving; we're practically numb.

He desperately wanted to take a shower, change his clothes, and go to bed to sleep for a while.

As the car drove out of the parking lot, Qingze put down the half-finished milk tea and started unpacking cookies.

A sweet aroma filled the air, and the crisp chewing sound was exceptionally clear in the silence.

He ate slowly and deliberately, yet each bite was accompanied by an almost deliberate sense of enjoyment, and he even gave a vague evaluation:

"Hmm... the crispness is just right, and the sweetness is just right too. No wonder it was made by my girlfriend."

The sweet aroma permeated everything, and Gin stared at the road ahead, his jawline tightening even more.

He hadn't eaten anything all afternoon, and hadn't even drunk much water. This jerk was drinking milk tea and munching on cookies, which was really annoying.

He glanced at the person who kept eating and said sarcastically, "Aren't you afraid Vermouth will add something to your food?"

"Vermouth and I have a close teacher-student relationship, we love each other, how could she possibly add something to it?"

Gin: "......"

He was utterly impressed by someone's shamelessness.

He attacked his most vulnerable point directly, "Delicious? Hah, who are you trying to fool? You can't taste anything!"

Even though the last examination report said that Koniak's sense of taste had recovered a little, it was only a little.

I really don't know what's so great about eating this!

"Is it any of your business?" Qingze swallowed a biscuit, his tone relaxed yet irritating. "But you, don't be so obviously jealous."

"Me? Jealous?" Gin's temple throbbed.

"Oh--"

Qingze drawled out his words, as if he had suddenly realized something, picked up a cookie with slightly charred edges and shaped like a Christmas tree, and handed it over generously.

"So you wanted to eat it. You should have said so earlier."

Gin caught a glimpse of the cookie being offered to him out of the corner of his eye; it was golden and tempting, with a sweet aroma.

He reached out to take it, but just as he was about to touch it, Qingze deftly twisted his wrist and snatched the cookie back, quickly stuffing it into his mouth.

"Hey, no way."

He was biting into a biscuit, his voice carrying an undisguised, malicious chuckle.

"My girlfriend made this especially for me, there's no share for you."

Gin: "..."

Gin's hand froze in mid-air, then clenched tightly, suppressing the urge to punch him in the face, and pulled it back.

He gripped the steering wheel, taking deep breaths.

I can't beat them, I can't beat them...

If he ever takes on another project from Koniak, he'll write Gin's name backwards!

Ignoring the oppressive atmosphere emanating from Gin, Qingze picked up his phone, snapped a picture of a cookie, and sent it to Ran Mouri.

[Qingze: Delicious. I like it. I want more next time.]

Includes a cat head emoji.

Meanwhile, Ran Mouri was driving on a road in the evening. Feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket, she slowly brought the car to a stop as the traffic light turned red at the intersection ahead.

She took out her hand and couldn't help but laugh, her fingertips dancing lightly on the screen.

Ran Mouri: Merry Christmas! (^▽^)

She turned her head and said to Kuroba Kaito, who was still wearing her face in the passenger seat, "We're almost there."

Kaito Kuroba was also holding his phone, sending a message, and replied with a simple "hmm" without turning his head.

The car came to a smooth stop in a temporary parking space on the side of the road in the shopping mall.

Kaito Kuroba, still resembling Ran Mouri, got out of the car and naturally blended into the crowd heading to the mall, quickly turning into the restroom.

A moment later, when he came out again, he had returned to his original appearance.

It was already completely dark when the huge Christmas tree in the center of the square was lit up early. Countless colored lights and decorative balls twinkled with warm and dazzling light, enveloping the bustling and laughing crowd in a dreamy halo.

Kaito's gaze swept easily across the crowd, precisely locking onto a brown-haired girl who was looking up at the Christmas tree, seemingly muttering, "Where is that idiot Kaito?"

He approached silently and gently patted her shoulder.

"Whoa!" Nakamori Aoko was startled and turned around abruptly.

Kaito, however, had already peeked out from beside her and, as if by magic, presented her with a translucent blue crystal rose.

The crystal refracts a delicate, star-like light under the colored lights.

"Aoko, Merry Christmas~"

In the hospital ward, the glass windows blocked out the noise of the outside world, but could not block out the dazzling sea of ​​light.

Conan stood alone by the window, his small figure bathed in the cold white light of the hospital room.

In the distance outside the window, the giant Christmas tree in the commercial plaza is twinkling with countless warm colored lights, like a star castle fallen to earth.

"Christmas..."

He muttered to himself, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible.

Every Christmas in the past, whether as Shinichi Kudo or later as Conan Edogawa, he always found various reasons and ways to stay by Ran Mouri's side.

This time, he was trapped in this ward filled with the smell of disinfectant, gazing at the bustling scene that didn't belong to him from afar through the cold glass.

Like a bystander forgotten in the corner of the stage.

And not just this once. From now on, he will never be able to spend Christmas Eve with Xiaolan again.

A heavy feeling settled in my heart, like a long, damp rainy season, seeping in silently and accumulating heavily in my chest, making it hard to breathe.

Just as he was staring blankly at the Christmas tree, the ward door was pushed open with a "whoosh".

"We're here!"

The energetic shouts instantly broke the silence of the room, making it lively.

"Conan, Merry Christmas!"

Chapter 527 The illness has relapsed again.

Back at the base, Qingze went straight to a rest room, took a shower, changed his clothes, and went straight to sleep.

At 11 p.m., he was abruptly pulled from his sleep by an extremely violent banging on the door.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sound wasn't like knocking; it was more like being pounded with a hammer, carrying a ruthless determination to wake someone completely.

Qingze suddenly sat up in bed, his violent killing intent surging wildly.

He felt that he had just closed his eyes and had only slept for a short while when someone came to disturb him!