Chapter 37: Take him out more often! Please give me your monthly votes! (〃)
After finishing the interrogation and extracting information from Kyosuke Kazato, Jiang Xia planned to go home.
On the way back, as they passed by the commercial street, Little White stared at the television in a shop window and paused.
It tugged on Jiang Xia’s ear.
Jiang Xia was momentarily stunned, thinking there would be another harvest.
Who knew that when he stopped and turned his head expectantly, he found that this time, what attracted Little White was not murderous aura.
Instead, it was a variety show on television.
—On the screen, Kinoshita Yoko was promoting her new album.
Little White looked at the screen longingly, a look of desire in its eyes for the album.
Jiang Xia: “…”
After picking up the Ghost Infant, he had already bought many magazines and albums related to Kinoshita Yoko, which was similar to preparing small toys when raising a cat.
However, these latest albums usually required queuing up to snatch them…
Jiang Xia glanced at the rerun time displayed on the TV and told the ghost in advance: “We can go take a look, but there might not be any in stock.”
…
The rain stopped for a while, then started again.
Jiang Xia held an umbrella and found a place where he could buy the album.
When he saw the messy ground outside the audio-visual store, he had a bad feeling.
Upon entering, as expected, the new album had already been snapped up.
“…” Only at times like these could Jiang Xia intuitively feel that “Kinoshita Yoko is indeed quite popular.”
Little White looked at the empty shelf, rubbed its eyes, and whined softly.
Jiang Xia: “…” Raising a ghost is really troublesome.
He went to a few other stores to check, making a show of trying hard.
As expected, the other stores also had no stock.
After checking the last store, Jiang Xia placated the ghost, breathed a sigh of relief, and prepared to leave.
But then, someone behind him suddenly called out hesitantly: “Jiang Xia?”
Jiang Xia turned his head at the sound.
There was no one behind him, only a row of bookshelves.
Looking closer, a pair of eyes peered out from a gap in the bookshelves, staring straight at him.
Jiang Xia paused, and keywords immediately flashed through his mind: “Bookshelf Corpse Incident.”
…Search yielded no results.
“…” It seems there isn’t such a case…
While he was wondering, he saw the eyes between the bookshelves blink gently.
They were sparkling, looking not only alive but also excessively energetic.
“…” At this, Jiang Xia immediately recognized her.
—Suzuki Sonoko?
…
Across from the bookshelf.
When Suzuki Sonoko saw Jiang Xia turn around, she said excitedly to the side, “See, I told you it looked like him!” then vanished with a whoosh.
One second later, Jiang Xia watched Suzuki Sonoko move in front of him with teleportation-like speed, subtly taking half a step back, startled by her speed.
“I didn’t expect you to be a fan too.” Suzuki Sonoko didn’t notice Jiang Xia’s subtle alarm; she was simply happy to have discovered their “common interest.”
After speaking, she remembered something, lowered her voice, and mysteriously invited him: “Oh, by the way, the day after tomorrow, Ran and I are going to Tatsuya’s band celebration party. Do you want to come along?”
The Suzuki Zaibatsu invested widely and had considerable influence in the entertainment industry. Suzuki Sonoko could easily meet many celebrities, making it very convenient for her to be a fan.
Jiang Xia: “...Tatsuya?” That name sounded a bit unfamiliar.
However, very quickly, his gaze shifted slightly, and he saw a poster in the store.
—On the poster was a man holding a microphone, singing passionately. The male star’s hair was very spiky, standing straight up, making him look like he had a hedgehog on his head.
In the corner of the poster, the singer’s signature was written: “Kimura Tatsuya.”
The unique hair, plus this name…
Jiang Xia quickly remembered something and was immediately tempted.
He and Suzuki-san chatted amicably about “Kimura Tatsuya” for a few moments.
During the conversation, although Suzuki Sonoko vaguely felt that Jiang Xia seemed like a fake fan, she didn’t care at all.
Whether he was fake or not didn’t matter.
What mattered was having a meal and karaoke with Jiang Xia, plus Kimura Tatsuya—double the happiness!
…
A minute later, Suzuki Sonoko, with illusory little flowers floating around her, smiled and waved, watching Jiang Xia walk out of the store.
After a while longer, she gradually came back to her senses.
“...Wait, I just invited him just like that?” Suzuki Sonoko touched her chin suspiciously, then turned and grabbed Mouri Ran, “I didn’t mishear, did I? He really agreed, right?”
Mouri Ran also nodded blankly.
Jiang Xia never bullied his classmates and didn’t seem cold, but there was always a strong sense of distance between him and his classmates.
…Of course, a large part of the reason was certainly that Jiang Xia skipped too many classes, not giving everyone time to get close.
But this also had to do with Jiang Xia’s usual behavior—he never participated in private gatherings and didn’t like going out with classmates.
…
Just now, when Suzuki Sonoko invited him, she didn’t actually expect to really get him to come. She just wanted to use the conversation as an opportunity to get a close-up look at a handsome guy, to enjoy later with a meal, and to make up for the regret of not buying the album…
However, she didn’t expect that after a few sentences of chatting, she actually managed to lure him out.
“…” Suzuki Sonoko held her face in a daze for a while longer, then suddenly had a guess, “Did something happy happen to him?”
…If she could figure out what that thing was, wouldn’t she be able to just repeat the good thing, make Jiang Xia happy, and then invite him out for a meal anytime, anywhere?
Suzuki Sonoko’s eyes gleamed; she felt like she had firmly grasped the handsome guy’s secret code.
…
Conan stood quietly by their legs, also feeling that Jiang Xia was a bit unusual.
—Just now, Conan was originally playing with the children in the Park. But as they played, it suddenly started raining again, so the four of them had to go home.
On the way home, Conan spotted Mouri Ran in the bustling crowd at a glance.
So, taking advantage of being a child, he nonchalantly blended into the girls’ shopping group.
At this moment, Conan watched Suzuki Sonoko’s eyes gradually form into heart shapes and felt that she was thinking crookedly.
So he quickly nipped his classmate’s strange idea in the bud: “Actually, this morning, when we went to the police station, we happened to see Jiang Xia-gege’s attending Dr. Kazato killing someone on the street, and then the doctor was arrested on the spot, so…”
Suzuki Sonoko: “…”
This… this replication difficulty seems a bit high?
“…” Conan saw her strange expression and felt that his thought process still hadn’t aligned with this infatuated classmate’s—Jiang Xia agreeing to the invitation certainly wasn’t because “the doctor was arrested, and he’s in a good mood.”
Because Conan felt that the relationship between Jiang Xia and Dr. Kazato, this doctor-patient pair, seemed to be quite good.
After all, when Jiang Xia usually started hitting people, no one could stop him. But today, the doctor who was being hit only shouted once, and as soon as Jiang Xia recognized him, he immediately stopped.
Also, although Jiang Xia rarely went to the Hospital. But thinking about it the other way, someone who disliked Hospitals so much actually took the initiative to get a check-up… Although he didn’t finish it and left midway, it already spoke volumes.
…In short, regarding why Suzuki Sonoko was able to successfully invite him out, Conan already had a more scientific explanation in his mind.
…
Conan looked up and saw Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko both looking at him, both very concerned about the case he had just mentioned. They asked for details.
Conan simply described the situation.
Then, facing his two listeners, he couldn’t help but switch into deduction mode, applying the half-baked amateur psychology he had learned in Hawaii:
“Before the doctor was taken away, he clearly showed his dislike for Jiang Xia.”
Conan was referring to the desperate yell Dr. Kazato let out when he was kicked and couldn’t get up:
“If Jiang Xia had established a relatively stable connection with the doctor during previous treatments, then he might be hit hard by this.
“People have an instinct for self-preservation. Now that Jiang Xia’s connection with the doctor has been forcibly severed, his subconscious might try to establish new connections with others to save himself—you just happened to invite him, and you’ve invited him many times before, so he might have felt your goodwill…”
Conan was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly felt that there were many flaws in his words.
Not only did he forget to add “gege” when mentioning Jiang Xia, but he also accidentally revealed some of Suzuki Sonoko’s past actions… This, this wouldn’t expose his identity as Kudo Shinichi, would it!
Thinking of this, Conan broke out in a cold sweat, somewhat regretting it.
Who knew that when he carefully looked up, he was not met with Mouri Ran’s scrutinizing gaze.
Instead, he saw Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko looking a bit tearful, and they even pulled out handkerchiefs to wipe their tears.
Conan: “...?”