45 Exclusive from Jinjiang

◎You are not a fish◎

47

When Fyodor finally felt his feverish, confused consciousness clear, he didn't know how long he had slept.

The only lingering memory he vaguely sensed in his half-awake state was his mother's kiss, which seemed so ethereal and unreal that he couldn't tell if it was just a dream he had experienced while in a feverish coma.

It was probably just a dream. After all, he wasn't the kind of child who would cry and call for his mother whenever he was upset.

Until Fyodor saw Gogol sitting on the edge of the bed, grinning and eating a hamburger.

"..."

His face turned completely dark.

Gogol calmly swallowed the last bite of his hamburger, looking like he had a strong will to survive: "Don't get me wrong! I didn't cook this with your forehead!"

"—After all, you can't cook it even at 40 degrees Celsius, and now your fever has gone down to 39 degrees."

"..."

“But I’ll get back to the point,” Gogol crumpled the hamburger wrapper in his hand and tossed it into the trash can like a basketball shot, “This is the first time I’ve seen Dostoevsky so funny.”

Fyodor: "What?"

“I recorded it all.” Gogol waved his empty phone. “When I arrived, Wakana-chan was already gone. Instead, it was you, Toshin-kun, who kept talking nonsense. I wanted to get you a glass of water, but you grabbed my cloak and said to me, ‘Don’t go!’”

Fyodor: "...?"

Clowns always speak in half-truths, and in reality, Fyodor had never said these words to Gogol; it was merely a joke. But Fyodor's expression made Gogol unwilling to end the conversation with a simple "just kidding."

Hmm... The Joker fell into deep thought.

What can a person say when they are vulnerable and not in their right mind?

For example...

“Mamma,” Gogol blurted out.

Fyodor: What?

“I mean,” Gogol said with a mocking smile, “you actually called me, a man, someone who is only old enough to go grocery shopping by himself, ‘Mom’.”

"..."

"..."

"…………??"

No, that can't be, right?

"Cough cough..." Fyodor, whose fever had not completely subsided, couldn't help but cough a few times. His already uncomfortable throat hurt even more, as if a million tiny needles were pricking it.

Even Gogol was shocked.

He was just joking, why such a big reaction?

"You're lying to me." Having finally managed to speak fluently, Fyodor stared intently at Gogol, his eyes flashing with a cold, dagger-like light.

“I did lie to you. But are you really going to resist calling me ‘Mom’ if you’re just delirious from a fever?” Gogol found it quite amusing. “What if it wasn’t me who was called, but Wakai-chan?”

"..."

Upon hearing the name "Ruoyi," Fyodor's eyes, already clouded by fever, darkened with a hint of uncertainty, and his gaze involuntarily drifted to the cough medicine on the table.

"Where did she go?" he asked instinctively.

"Guess what?" Gogol blinked. "But, Dostoevsky, don't forget, cats aren't like dogs; they're not that obedient."

"Anyway, given your current physical condition, there's nothing you can do. Why not take this opportunity to become an 'observer' instead of a 'planner'?" He chuckled a few times. "Let's see what your little cat will choose when you're running a high fever, trapped in this hospital room, and even your phone is with me right now, completely unable to get involved in anything."

"..."

Fyodor was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"You do occasionally offer some constructive suggestions."

"After all, the microscope wasn't invented to make decisions for bacteria."

…………

At the same time.

Kawakami Wakana walked into the family restaurant where Pushkin had been tutoring in Japanese every week for the past month.

Just now, she received good news from Atsushi Nakajima.

After observing the physical condition of the president and Mori Ougai, Dr. Blackjack successfully developed a drug to alleviate the symptoms, which doubled the time that was originally less than 24 hours.

However, as Blackjack said, as a doctor without superpowers, he cannot cure diseases caused by viral superpowers. To solve the current predicament, the one who tied the knot must untie it.

She discovered that Fei Jia taught her much more than just the English she learned on the Jinjiang app.

Just by thinking about what Fedia would do, she actually succeeded in meeting Pushkin again.

All she did was state the facts that "Gogol took her to see Fyodor, who was running a high fever" and "the Port Mafia suspected her of being an accomplice," and incidentally told a lie.

"I have decided to accept the protection of the rats in the dead house." "Your boss has something to say to you." These two sentences successfully lured Pushkin to their usual meeting place.

“Teacher,” Pushkin had been waiting there, “what did the leader ask you to tell me?”

"It's nothing serious." Ruoyi smiled as she sat down at the dining table, took out the banknotes she had prepared beforehand, and wrote a line of text.

You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of fish?

It was the story that Fyodor had told her.

Pushkin: "...?"

Why are all these Chinese characters? How is he supposed to read them?!

and……

Some of the writing styles seem different from what he has always learned.

Is this really Japanese?

“This is in Chinese,” Kawakami Wakai answered his question.

"It means you're not a fish, so you can't understand how a fish feels."

"It was your leader who taught me this, and I hope that I will teach you the last thing I teach you."

Looking into the still bewildered eyes of the other person, she picked up the ice water on the table, took a sip, and slowly said, "Let me tell you a story."

“Feijia, your leader once met an innocent little girl. The little girl said that if she had so-called superpowers, it would be really cool and life would be so much easier. Your leader said this to that.”

"You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of fish?"

"At first, the little girl couldn't understand why people couldn't understand the feelings of fish. But one day, she actually became a superpowered person and realized that the cruelty of the world of superpowers was something that people without superpowers could not easily imagine."

While Pushkin wasn't a genius like Fyodor, he wasn't stupid either. He quickly realized that the little girl in the story might be the narrator himself.

“The second story,” Kawakami Wakana said, stroking the glass of ice water in her hand, “is still the story of an innocent little girl, ‘The Story of the Fish and the Child.’”

"That little girl fell in love with your leader. Even after realizing his true identity, she naively believed that as long as she was good to him and loved him unconditionally, she could warm his heart."

"But it wasn't until her love not only didn't change anything, but even backfired on her, that the little girl realized that no matter how much she liked him, she was never 'Fyodor'. She couldn't understand his true loneliness. So, she had no right to change him. After all, even if you force sunlight on the moon, it will only be blinding."

Pushkin: ?

Even he belatedly realized what was going on.

"The leader didn't send you here at all?" His killing intent began to rise. "You came here not to deliver a message, but to declare war?"

"..."

Ruoyi gently placed the water glass on the table.

You can understand it that way.

Almost simultaneously, the sound of tables and chairs clattering came from a nearby seat. Atsushi Nakajima and Ryunosuke Akutagawa immediately surrounded Pushkin.

“Pushkin-san, let me be more precise,” Ruoyi chuckled, “I’m here for two purposes.”

"The first is to give you your last lesson as a teacher, and the second is to negotiate with you."

“Dr. Blackjack, you should know him. He’s your boss’s family doctor,” she said. “He said that with just a carrier that can withstand the virus and enough money for treatment, he can treat both leaders.”

As she spoke, she glanced at Atsushi Nakajima, whose limbs had completely transformed into tiger-like forms. "We have both of these."

"This also means that, to the detective agency and the mafia, you are not someone who 'can neutralize the virus's power and therefore must be captured alive,' but rather someone who 'would be best to cooperate, but even if you resist, the Port Mafia will at least kill you without hesitation. And your leader is currently preoccupied with his own problems and unable to save you."

"Then, please choose. Do you wish to cooperate?"

"..."

Seeing Pushkin's astonished expression, Kawakami Wakana still wore a smile. But this smile surprised Nakajima Atsushi.

If all that was needed was him as a carrier for Dr. Blackjack to develop a cure for the virus, he would be willing. But the problem is, Dr. Blackjack never said anything like that. All he ever agreed to was a drug that would only slow down the process.

He and Kyoka-chan hadn't been members of the detective agency for very long, and naturally, they hadn't known Kawakami Wakana for very long either. Yet, he still felt that something about the girl in front of him had changed.

…………

With Kawakami Wakana's threat of "cooperation or enduring the wrath of the Port Mafia," Pushkin was successfully brought to the Mafia's laboratory by Nakahara Chuuya, where he collaborated with Dr. Blackjack and Yosano Akiko to personally research a solution to the "symbiotic" virus.

Seeing Pushkin being taken away by Chuuya Nakahara, Wakana Kawakami finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It was as if a huge mountain blocking his way had been removed with Pushkin's compromise.

Only after she breathed a sigh of relief did she realize that she hadn't eaten anything since she went to the hospital to see Dazai Osamu as a candidate for joining the company.

Just as Ruoyi was about to invite Nakajima Atsushi and Akutagawa Ryunosuke to eat something, she noticed the hesitant look in Nakajima Atsushi's eyes as he looked at Akutagawa.

It was only then that Kawakami Wakana noticed that Akutagawa Ryunosuke's lips had turned an unhealthy white.

“Akutagawa,” Atsushi Nakajima said cautiously, “the matter concerning the president and Mr. Mori has been temporarily resolved. Could we perhaps discuss… something else?”

"Didn't Dr. Blackjack mention before? Thirty million, he can cure your lung disease."

"Would you...accept his treatment?"

"Cough cough..." Akutagawa Ryunosuke coughed as he asked the question. Even Kawakami Wakana, a half-baked medical student, could hear his breathing, which was far from "healthy," without needing a stethoscope.

But unlike that cough, the look that Akutagawa Ryunosuke gave Nakajima Atsushi was a cold, emotionless gaze that only an assassin could see.

"Human-Tiger..."

He asked, "Do you think I should say yes?"

[Author's Note]

Ruoyi, you've changed qwq

By the way, don't you guys think this looks a bit like a "darkening" or something? (not really)

Small Theater

Ruoyi in elementary school be like

One day, I was so moved by a scene in a TV series where a mother and daughter reunited that I cried.

Then one day after school, a stranger greeted me and asked if I could call him "Mom".

She immediately cried out for her mother, but when a stranger offered to have a meal with her, she decided to say goodbye to her biological parents.

Then she was particularly clingy that day.

The second discovery was that the woman called another classmate "Mom".

Ruoyi: Are we sisters who have been separated for many years?

Upon hearing this, Fyodor was speechless.

It's quite remarkable that you've survived until now.