Chapter 5: So envious… Ah, no, that’s too much!
Jiang Xia: “…”
He froze for a second, then steeled himself and reached his hand across the boundary, poking the Ghost Fetus.
…A sharp pain instantly assaulted him; his fingertip felt like it had rolled through a pile of needles.
Jiang Xia’s eyelid twitched, and he quickly withdrew his hand.
…It was more potent than he had thought.
Plan A: forcibly take it away first, then bring it home to slowly reform it—that option could now be crossed out.
“…” It was indeed the right decision to ask for Kinoshita Yoko’s contact information earlier…
Kinoshita Yoko was also startled.
She couldn’t see the Ghost Fetus, so in her eyes, Jiang Xia’s action… was a bit offensive.
Normally, who would shake hands by grabbing someone’s wrist?
However, as an actress skilled at reading expressions, she also saw the look of resistance Jiang Xia showed when he pulled back his hand—he didn’t seem to like it either.
“…” Kinoshita Yoko had been reading too many literary scripts recently. After a moment of Stunned, she imagined a whole host of strange mental journeys.
For instance: to play the part of a “delinquent,” he deliberately teased a respectable idol, but at the same time, he disdained such behavior, which was why he quickly pulled his hand away in disgust…
In short, he was a misguided youth teetering on the edge of depravity.
Seeing Jiang Xia about to leave, Kinoshita Yoko didn’t have time to think much. She reached out and pulled him back.
To successfully grab him, Kinoshita Yoko extended her hand quite far out.
Jiang Xia was pulled around by her, and the Ghost Infant, which hadn’t crawled far, happened to cover the back of his hand.
…The sensation was like having a pot of boiling water poured on him. Jiang Xia’s ears buzzed with pain, but he managed to keep his expression from breaking.
Fortunately, the Ghost Infant also disliked this contact and quickly crawled away, muttering curses.
The pain immediately lessened.
Kinoshita Yoko was completely unaware of everything that had just happened.
She fumbled in the armrest box, pulled out a handful of colorful crystal candies, and placed them in Jiang Xia’s palm.
Then, like coaxing a younger brother, she patted him on the arm, pouring him a bowl of chicken soup with it, and gently said, “Go on, don’t force yourself to be a delinquent anymore—being a Detective is a good job. You’ll definitely succeed.”
Jiang Xia: “…?”
He was bewildered for a moment, not understanding why Miss Yoko would say such a thing.
In the end, he could only pretend nothing had happened, held the candy, withdrew his hand, left the “evidence” disc, and bid farewell.
…………
After Jiang Xia left.
The manager returned to the car, re-locked the doors, and turned to look at Kinoshita Yoko in the back seat.
Kinoshita Yoko smiled at her relaxedly and handed over the disc: “He just found an excuse to hitch a ride in an emergency—this disc contains study materials he burned.”
The manager’s temple throbbed, her blood pressure surged, and she almost crushed the disc in her hand.
But… he found an excuse.
That meant Yoko hadn’t had an abortion after all, right?
The manager let out a heavy sigh of relief.
No negative publicity was good.
She inserted the car key, started the engine, and drove away, while wearily complaining to Kinoshita Yoko about Jiang Xia: “This kid really loves to cause trouble for others. He gets into trouble with thugs himself but wants to drag us into it.”
“People’s will to survive is very strong,” Kinoshita Yoko’s calm voice came from the back seat. “It’s like some people say, ‘When kidnapped, you should smash things belonging to passersby so that the passersby who suffer financial losses won’t stand idly by’—it’s doing something that harms innocent people’s interests, but it’s only to survive, so it’s hard to blame them.”
“…You’ve only known him for a few minutes, and you’re already making excuses for him,” the manager’s temples throbbed again, and she muttered under her breath.
Kinoshita Yoko listened carefully for a while and vaguely heard the manager angrily cursing “vixen.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle, then stopped talking and picked up the novel she had been reading, which was half-finished.
The novel was given to her by the old director: “Youth That Never Returns,” a literary, passionate, and inspirational story.
When she first started reading it, she felt the book was silly and childish.
But the more she read, the more she was assimilated by it, and she began to feel it was a masterpiece.
At this moment, Kinoshita Yoko thought with emotion: Seventeen or eighteen years old is a good age when you dare to do anything, and it’s never too late to do anything. It only happens once in a lifetime.
If Jiang Xia truly embarked on the right path in the future, then she could also be considered a witness to this miraculous transformation.
…
On the other side.
After Jiang Xia got out of the car, he walked into an alley.
Not long after, a series of footsteps sounded behind him—someone had followed him.
Jiang Xia walked to a secluded spot and turned around.
He saw that the person who had followed him was the blond punk who had been “chasing” him earlier.
The blond punk approached menacingly, carrying a baseball bat.
Then he enthusiastically put an arm around Jiang Xia: “How was it, Boss? Did you get the autograph?”
—Kinoshita Yoko, as a top idol, appealed to both genders and all ages. Her popularity was particularly high in the male-dominated delinquent circles.
Therefore, a few days ago, when Jiang Xia suggested, “Let’s make up an excuse to ask Miss Yoko for an autograph,” it immediately received an enthusiastic response.
A group of people then, according to Jiang Xia’s instructions, pretended to be thugs chasing him.
Although they weren’t quite sure what the connection was between “chasing the boss” and “asking Miss Yoko for an autograph”… but what the Boss said must be right! Just follow the plan.
Sure enough, not long after, they saw Jiang Xia get into Kinoshita Yoko’s car.
…One could only say, as expected of the Boss!
After asking about the autograph, the blond punk didn’t wait for Jiang Xia to speak. He furtively looked around and couldn’t help but share the happy moment with his Boss in a low voice:
“When I passed you just now, I peeked through the window crack. Haha, Miss Yoko in person is even more… huh?”
Mid-sentence, he inadvertently lowered his eyes and saw a hideous patch of blue on the back of Jiang Xia’s right hand, instantly startling him.
A moment later, a strange look of envy appeared in the blond punk’s eyes: “…Miss Yoko hit you? Did she do it herself?”
Jiang Xia: “…”
Two seconds later, the blond punk snapped back to reality under his quiet gaze. He cleared his throat guiltily: “I mean, that… that’s too much! Not giving an autograph is one thing, but hitting someone!”
The other “people hired by rival paparazzi” had been trailing Kinoshita Yoko’s car from a distance. Now that Jiang Xia had gotten out, they also came over to rendezvous one after another.
At this moment, hearing the blond punk’s howl from afar, the group all excitedly gathered around, looking eager to act.
—The Boss was cornered in a car by two beautiful women and beaten up?
Could this be tolerated?
No!
They must also…
Cough, no.
They must seek justice for the Boss!
Jiang Xia, enduring their fervent gazes, felt that this group of subordinates was very strange.
He sighed wearily: “No one hit me. This is from bumping into something a few days ago.” He raised his hand and shook it, revealing the mark touched by the Ghost Fetus. “How could something just hit be this color?”
Jiang Xia really didn’t want to see strange reports the next day like “Shocking! Delinquents Massively Storm Entertainment Company.”
His subordinates were quite disappointed to hear his explanation: “Oh, that’s right.”
Their memories were generally not very good, and they didn’t usually have the habit of staring at other people’s hands, so they couldn’t recall what Jiang Xia’s hand looked like a few days ago and were easily fooled.
…Crisis averted.
The subordinates happily returned to their previous topic: “Miss Yoko is so cute!… By the way, Boss, what kind of fake information did you use to get into the car?”… They also wanted to learn.
Jiang Xia casually brushed them off: “I Photoshopped a copy of her 0-point report card and threatened her that if she didn’t give me an autograph, I’d expose her low intelligence. Then she called me into the car and lectured me the whole way about being honest.”
As he spoke, Jiang Xia reached into his pocket, fumbled around, and pulled out the candy Kinoshita Yoko had given him: “She’s too cute in person. I was so busy looking at her that I forgot to ask for an autograph. Before I got out, she gave me some candy. You guys can share it.”
“Oh!” The delinquents were very happy. For them, a formalized autograph versus sweet candy, of course, the candy was more memorable.
A handful of candy instantly disappeared.
Only one piece remained in Jiang Xia’s pocket.
But he didn’t plan to eat it. This candy had Kinoshita Yoko’s scent, so he could keep it as a souvenir to coax the Ghost Fetus later. The principle was probably similar to preparing cat toys before getting a cat.
…
Jiang Xia had originally gone for the Ghost Fetus today.
But from the contact just now, it seemed the little Ghost Infant’s obsession was very deep and couldn’t be easily picked up.
However, it wasn’t without any gains.
—At the moment of contact, Jiang Xia discovered that the little Ghost Infant’s obsession was quite naive: it wanted to see its biological father and mother live together harmoniously.
…Perhaps it had been following Kinoshita Yoko all the time and had watched too many naive, sweet dramas.
Jiang Xia didn’t know Kinoshita Yoko’s ex-boyfriend, but he had no intention of playing matchmaker for them.
To pick up this type of Ghost Fetus, their obsession must not be so deep.
Besides helping them achieve their wishes, this could also be achieved by another method—letting the Ghost Fetus experience the harsh realities of life and realize that what it hoped for was impossible to achieve.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia activated his fake “precognitive ability,” recalled the plot, and quickly had a rough plan.
…However, he couldn’t go immediately; he needed to make some preparations first.
…
The next day, when Jiang Xia was washing up in front of the mirror, he found that the back of his hand was completely bruised, though fortunately not swollen.
This kind of small Ghost Fetus couldn’t harm his spirit, but it could torment his body… mainly because this body had never been exposed to a real Ghost Fetus before, and the sudden contact caused a slight allergic reaction.
However, the most damage a Ghost Fetus could inflict on Jiang Xia was to this extent.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to just poke it with his hand earlier.
Jiang Xia shook his wrist a couple of times, found that it didn’t hurt and didn’t affect his movement, so he didn’t bother with it anymore and got ready to go to school.
…
Jiang Xia usually only attended school when there were quizzes; the rest of the time, he took sick leave.
However, thanks to his excellent memory and comprehension skills, his grades were very good.
Although there was a Kudo Shinichi in his class, because many details were different from the anime, Jiang Xia couldn’t be sure if Kudo Shinichi would turn into Conan, nor did he know if the future time would become twenty times longer than a year… So, getting into college was actually part of his life plan.
Anyway, studying wasn’t difficult for him; he just needed to glance at something to remember it.
If time wasn’t stretched, then getting into a good university and joining the organization’s research lab in the future would definitely be more comfortable than being a peripheral member who just fought and killed.