Chapter 47 Chapter 47 This chapter contains a small amount of forum content

47

"This seems to be a very popular check-in spot." Hagiwara Kenji swiped his phone, and after finding this place, a lot of information came out naturally.

For example, this post.

This is a forum that brings together dessert lovers. Most of the users are girls, and occasionally girls will share other life topics. Over time, the forum has gradually evolved into a comprehensive forum with various topics, but it still focuses on dessert making and dessert check-ins.

Kenji Hagiwara often visits this forum, probably because he has many female friends who share with him when they browse the forum. Over time, he knows a lot about this forum.

Kenji Hagiwara was currently reading a post from six months ago.

Title: [One person wrote in blood to the manager of the Fuwafuwa store on Yunduo Road, asking him to find your lost little gray cat]

[First Floor (Original Poster)] Hello everyone, it's that time of year again when I miss White Moonlight. This is indeed my favorite White Moonlight pair. It's fleeting like a shooting star, but the aftertaste is immense, and everyone who's tried it says it's great.

[Second floor] Ah, this is the pair. The pair I like is actually CB-oriented, but no matter how I look at it, it’s good, from a distance.

PS. I went to Fuwafuwa yesterday and saw the store manager was very busy making coffee, taking bills and serving cakes, but he didn’t recruit any employees. Was he really holding back the positions for the little gray cat to come back?

[Third Floor] Thank you, Knife Spirit. It's rare to find kindhearted people like you these days. (Swallows knife with tears in his eyes)

[Fourth Floor] No, who is the little gray cat? Isn't the cat at Fuwafuwa's house a calico?

[Fifth Floor] The upstairs guest must have been a new customer within the past two years. We're not talking about a real cat, but a staff member who worked at Fuwafuwa two years ago. Because he had unusual gray hair and eyes, and looked incredibly creepy, he was constantly being harassed by perverts, which made him easily frightened, much like a cat. So, we call him a little gray cat. (PS: All perverts go to hell!! —)

He also brought home the calico cat from Fuwafuwa's home. Fuwafuwa was incredibly popular during that time, but unfortunately, he only worked there for about a month before leaving.

[Seventh Floor] You may not know Fuwafuwa, but you must have heard of "Two or Three Coffees," the popular comic strip on Instagram. It's based on them.

[8th Floor] Oh, that comic strip about the daily life of cute animals running a coffee shop? Wow, I always love it!

[Ninth Floor] Once you see the real person, you will know that this comic strip is a completely documentary comic... The protective golden-haired store manager x the beautiful but depressed gray cat clerk and so on... The comic strip is still very sweet, but the reality has been BE.

[Tenth Floor] So the reality is that the golden-haired store manager knew that the gray-cat store clerk would not be coming back, but he still kept a position for him forever and took care of the calico girl he left behind...

[Twelfth Floor] Wow, this is too cruel. I'm crying my eyes out. Seriously, does anyone know where the little gray cat went?

[Thirteenth Floor] He went back to China, didn't he? I remember he was Chinese.

[14th Floor] As expected, happy endings only exist in novels, and reality is always hard to accept.

[Fifteenth Floor] Really... If Little Gray Cat sees this post, would you consider coming to Japan, even if it's just for a trip? The owner of fuwafuwa has been waiting for you...

Kenji Hagiwara said that this was not the little gray-haired boy he knew and his name was written backwards.

But the strange thing is that this place is only about 10 minutes' drive from the place where he and Mo Shiyu first met, but judging from the comments of customers who frequently go to Fuwafua store on the forum, Mo Shiyu has never returned to this store again.

He was so close to the store that he could just walk a few steps to get home.

Hagiwara Kenji glanced back at Matsuda Jinpei and noticed that his cool and handsome son, Jinpei, was looking down at his phone. "Jinpei-chan, what are you looking at?"

Matsuda Jinpei raised his eyes and showed him the cute manga on his phone in a very cool and handsome boy way. "Huh? I'm reading "Coffee Buddies"."

Hagihara Kenji: "..."

The black curly-haired police officer put his phone away and clicked "Follow" with a stern expression, "The drawing is quite interesting."

This artist seems to have taken off thanks to this comic. When you click to follow him, an animation of a little gray cat making a heart shape with its two paws appears on the screen.

Matsuda Jinpei was a little surprised, so he clicked cancel, clicked follow again, and watched the animation again with great interest.

Kenji Hagiwara silently turned his eyes into crescents: "..." Okay, okay, contrast cuteness is the trend these days, right?

***

The joke was over, and they walked along the road, quickly found the place, and pushed open the door of the cake shop.

The wind chimes made a soft and pleasant tinkling sound.

As soon as he walked in, Kenji Hagiwara smelled the buttery aroma of the golden brown cheese croissants freshly baked in the oven. A lazy calico cat was lying on its own small sofa. When they came in, its ears moved and it yawned, but it still kept its eyes lazily closed.

A small blackboard with today's recommended items hung on the wall. The atmosphere of this cake shop was relaxed and casual, complementing the style of Yunduo Road. After the sound of wind chimes, a figure busy in the kitchen called out, "Welcome."

The voice was unexpectedly deep.

Kenji Hagiwara knew that the manager of this cake shop with a girly name was actually a tough guy who studied civil engineering. He took over his mother's business and has been running it until now just to keep it from going under.

Hagiwara Kenji first flashed his signature friendly smile. He walked to the front desk and ordered two cups of coffee. "Excuse me."

The store manager said, "Okay."

While waiting for coffee, Kenji Hagiwara noticed that there were many photos hanging on the walls of the dessert shop, almost covering the entire wall. He squinted his eyes to look at them. There were photos of cats and people, but he did not see Xiaoshiyu.

Kenji Hagiwara was not in a hurry. He looked at each photo carefully until a photo in the corner caught his attention.

The photographer was taking the photo from behind, so the person's full face wasn't captured, only a silhouette.

The man was sitting on the ground holding the cat, his head down to play with it. He was wearing a brown apron with his long sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had a head of smoky gray hair, which was short and had the ends randomly curled up. He probably just woke up and didn't comb his hair.

Just by looking at his back, you can see a clean and refreshing youthful feeling, which is completely different from the seductive and bewitching look he has now when he has long hair.

The person in the photo must have noticed the camera and turned his head slightly towards it. Hagiwara Kenji saw the corners of his lips slightly raised in relaxation. He was smiling, and there was no gloom in his smile.

Kenji Hagiwara felt as if he was stabbed by this smile, and his heart suddenly ached.

After a long silence, he turned around and said to the store manager with a blank expression, "Manager, can I ask who this photo is of?"

"Which one?"

The store manager was washing the coffee cup and wiping it with a towel. He looked up when he heard the words. After seeing which photo Hagiwara Kenji was pointing to, his expression changed immediately. The eyes he looked at Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei immediately became wary and cold, with a hint of hostility.

"What happened to the clerk who used to work here?"

Matsuda Jinpei clearly felt the manager's mood change. He was observing their reactions. Probably as long as there was a hint of abnormal obsession in their expressions, the manager would punch them and teach them a lesson.

This protective instinct, which most people would consider an overreaction, actually reassured the two officers. Hagiwara Kenji suppressed his smile, showed his ID, and said to the store manager, "Hello, store manager. My name is Hagiwara Kenji. The person next to me is Matsuda Jinpei. We are detectives from this area."

"……police?"

Hagiwara Kenji nodded. "Some time ago, this clerk appeared in a case. For some reasons, we need to investigate what happened to him two years ago, so we came here."

"What?" The store manager's pupils suddenly shrank. He put down his towel and strode over. Grabbing Hagiwara Kenji's collar, he asked repeatedly, "Have you seen Tokiyu? Is he in Japan now? What case has he been dragged into? How is he? Is he okay?"

Shiyu, I found the right one.

Seeing the store manager's abnormally anxious reaction, Matsuda Jinpei took off his sunglasses and squinted calmly. Hagiwara Kenji beside him quickly said in a gentle voice, "Don't worry, he's fine, he..."

The handsome police officer suddenly paused, and some words of comfort suddenly got stuck in his throat and could no longer be uttered.

The scene of the young man in the past flashed before his eyes.

The first time they met, Xiaoshiyu was slow to introduce himself, as if he hadn't heard it in so long that he had forgotten his own name. The second time, he put on makeup, went to a hotel in the middle of the night, and was embraced by a gang leader.

The third time, his body was covered with electric shock wounds, and his wrists were covered with purple wounds and bruises from being strangled by the barbed rope.

"No, he's not okay." Hagiwara Kenji closed his eyes, his voice becoming hoarse. "He might be being persecuted by some force. We can't be sure."

"What do you mean?" The manager's fingers turned white, and he looked like he wanted to turn Hagiwara Kenji over and shake him to clear his words.

Hagiwara Kenji was also unequivocal, saying in a serious and sincere tone, "Manager, to be honest with you, we don't have any evidence to support my subsequent opinion, so we can't openly investigate. Coming to you now is completely our private act."

He whispered, "I believe he's been in danger for a long time. Someone has controlled his freedom, coerced him, and exploited him... for improper gain. This is most likely related to his sudden departure two years ago."

“…”

The store manager took a step back, lowered his head, and muttered, "How could this happen..."

Matsuda Jinpei said, "What exactly happened two years ago?"

The store manager looked up, his eyes red as he finally began to narrate in a halting manner, "That day, he left a piece of paper, telling me he was leaving and saying goodbye. But I knew it wasn't right. He wouldn't just leave without even seeing me. He's a... special child. He couldn't be so irresponsible to himself. He disappeared."

"But I have no evidence. Without evidence, the police won't file a case. He's Chinese, so I went to the police and the embassy. But it was no use... The embassy said he was no longer in Japan, and I couldn't even find his location."

"Five months after he disappeared, he came back."