Chapter 64, Chapter 63: The Blooming of the Malan Flower

Human beings are essentially garbage cans

Because stepping on his foot will make him open his mouth.

But Furuya Rei wouldn't fall into the same trap a second time. As he lifted his foot, he took two steps back to the side, only to realize that this was not another careless "slippery" sneak attack.

The child in front of him braced himself against the door frame, swaying back and forth a couple of times, then pulled out the set of seven-colored cards and held them in front of him for a moment before taking another step as if he had caught his breath.

Furuya Rei paused for a moment, then reacted, gently reaching out to pull Zhuge Tongzhi, who was striding out of the airport terminal, and led him to a shady spot nearby, asking, "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine." The girl pushed away Furuya Rei's hand that was on her shoulder, rubbed her temples, and walked towards the taxi stand, joining the end of the queue. "I'm going to be late, Amuro-kun."

Rei Furuya's gaze lingered on her calm expression for a moment before he finally stepped into the slowly flowing queue of people waiting for the bus. He picked up the backpack containing basic necessities that Al was carrying and handed her an unopened bottle of mineral water.

Three hours earlier, they had basically agreed on the details of their cooperation. Morofushi Hiromitsu, who stayed behind, was responsible for communicating with Conan and the FBI, while Furuya Rei hurriedly booked the earliest flight to Kyoto for himself and Alju.

As a trusted member personally trained by Rum, Elju naturally had a group of low-level members who could be used at will. Among them were randomly refreshed personnel who could be moved wherever needed, as well as spies planted in other action groups, making it a mixed bag.

There were naturally some children from the training camp among them, and they were naturally closer to El.

Later, they will meet with two members who are still active at the grassroots level of the organization at a pre-anonymous meeting place.

Those contacts who remain loyal after being verified will be handed over to Bourbon. In exchange, he will relay the organization's movements to El, and he will also help gather intelligence about Lag.

It was a mutually beneficial deal, but it was more than that.

The black-haired girl tugged at the strap of her backpack in Shikuya Rei's hand, but couldn't budge it. She then took the bottle of water that was about to be held to her forehead, unscrewed it, and gulped down two mouthfuls. The cool taste flowed from her throat into her abdomen, relieving the nausea caused by dizziness.

Taxis arriving at the airport to pick up passengers came in a continuous stream, and the rapidly shortening queue soon put the two at the front of the line.

They opened the door and got into the car. As Furuya Rei gave them the address of a restaurant, they merged into the traffic flowing from the suburbs into Kyoto.

The driver wasn't a talkative person. After listening to the blonde passenger's fluent and standard Japanese, he confirmed the exact location of the entrance and exit and then fell silent.

However, the two people in the back seat, one big and one small, started chatting casually with each other.

"Want some mints?" Furuya Rei opened his palm, and several colorful candies in pink, green, and blue appeared in his palm, but he was immediately swatted away by Al with a palm strike, firmly refusing, "I'm not used to the taste of mint."

“Your taste seems to be more on the milder side, but Midorikawa said you like spicy food, but you don’t like wasabi.” Rei Furuya, unperturbed by the rejection, put the candy back in the pocket of his backpack and said, “Speaking of which, the restaurant we went to this time was also a Chinese restaurant.”

"Tong-chan really likes Chinese culture." The blond man smiled and called the girl's name affectionately, earning her a speechless look in return.

"Both Rag and I speak Chinese as our native language, but we've been in training camps since we were kids, so we don't know where our hometown is." Elju surrendered, raising his hands and giving Furuya Rei a half-moon look as he looked at him with a hint of self-deprecation.

"Besides, there's nothing interesting to dig into about my background. The people in the training camp are either abandoned orphans or orphans whose entire families have died."

"Just ask whatever you want, Mr. Amuro." She put her hand down and gave the adult beside her a sweet smile. Her childlike profile was reflected in the rearview mirror. "After all, it concerns the performance of the stage play, so I will try my best to express my understanding."

So they were stage workers going to gather material.

The taxi driver silently looked away and loosened his grip on the steering wheel.

He was so immersed in the story that he thought he had accidentally wandered into some dark movie set.

"Then let's talk about the characters we'll be meeting later." Rei Furuya naturally picked up where the script left off, asking, "They're all junior members, so why weren't they designated as codenamed members?"

“The number of codenamed members is already small, let alone those who are willing to rebel against the organization.” Elg naturally knew that codenamed members would have more information and resources, which is why he went to Curaçao to gather information as soon as possible.

"Besides, codenamed members enjoy money, real estate, and various shady resources provided by the organization. These privileges are far more resilient to the test of time than any vague sentiment." The black-haired girl leaned back in her seat and looked up at the brightening sky outside the window.

Even Curaçao, who was trained by Ragnarok, would think of capturing her and bringing her back to the organization to earn merit and reward her upon seeing her.

However, this is also related to the fact that she never interfered in the affairs of the training camp. Rag must have emphasized their alliance, but this relationship, which was separated by a layer, became very vulnerable in reality.

"What about El and Lag?" Furuya Rei followed up on the topic, asking the question that concerned him most. His deep purple eyes were filled with inquiry as he said, "Why did these two characters abandon those rights?"

“Because they’re committing crimes, not mental illnesses.” Alju understood Furuya Rei’s implied meaning, glanced at him and said, “What normal person would want to work here? If you don’t do your job well, your colleagues will ruin you.”

Why don't you go and get some opinions from Ireland and Curaçao?

"So, it's actually quite easy to figure out who the mole is," she said with a hint of sarcasm. "Just thoroughly investigate the outstanding talents who actively apply to join; you might just find out they're all moles."

"The talented people who actively come to this kind of place either have ulterior motives, or they have ulterior motives, or they have ulterior motives."

It remains to be seen whether the Japanese Public Security Bureau has ulterior motives, the FBI has ulterior motives, or the CIA, etc.

—For more details, please refer to the whisky trio directly hired by the distillery.

A Japanese public security officer felt he had been subtly insulted.

However, it is clear that the ale's explanation is too much of a normal person's way of thinking, and it can even be said to be so righteous as to be evil.

Having gone through the process of climbing from an ordinary member to a codename member, Rei Furuya naturally knew how many criminals around him were eager to obtain a codename, and how many desperate criminals hoped to be above the law and outside the rules.

Although every mission is accompanied by a certain degree of life-threatening danger, and failure may even result in being silenced by the organization, even a small amount of resources from this massive black organization is more than an ordinary person could accumulate through a lifetime of honest work.

As people often say, profitable businesses are written into the constitution.

This applies to every country. Driven by greed, which can bewitch the mind, the saying "people die for wealth, birds die for food" can become a reason for people to risk their lives and souls.

Having already received a codename, Furuya Rei naturally enjoys the reimbursement allowance for codename members, while also receiving a police officer's salary, a part-time waiter's salary, and a fee for working as a private investigator.

In comparison, the "King of Hired Managers" was even more shocked by the organization's financial power.

But his ideals and original aspirations firmly safeguarded that unchanging essence.

Rather than profiting from the situation, he would much rather this rotten crow be driven out of his country.

However, Rag and El, who were adopted by the organization from childhood and grew up with codenames, are different. Their food, clothing, education and upbringing were all provided by the organization from a young age. Under brainwashing, their stance and goals should naturally be consistent with the organization.

But now it seems that the reality is quite the opposite.

These two not only planned to escape the organization early on, but also intended to take others with them.

Like a traveler groping in the dark on a moonless night, guided by something, they resolutely trek forward step by step.

What is guiding them? Rei Furuya pondered, finding it hard to imagine what goals two young children, who had not received a full education, could have.

He didn't ask the question, and Alju didn't care where Furuya Rei's thoughts had wandered off to. Even if he did know, he wouldn't bother to discuss it with him in detail.

If you really want to know, it's a red star on my chest.

After a few meaningless exchanges, the taxi slowly came to a stop in front of a restaurant with a "福" (good fortune) character on its sign. Furuya Reiyong Sake Brewery paid the expensive taxi fare, and then he and Zhuge Tongzhi went into the restaurant.

The taxi driver, who had been listening to the stage play's plot the whole way, watched the passenger leave and thought to himself that the script for the children was quite complicated. He then turned around and drove towards the bustling city center.

They often get more orders there.

As you push open the "Good Fortune Arrives" sign on the door and step into the shop, the enthusiastic proprietress greets you with a menu in hand.

“Auntie, auntie, I’m going to test you.” Elle tugged at her floral apron, tilted her head, and said in a clear Chinese voice, “Little ball, kick it with your foot, the magnolia flower blooms at twenty-one.”

"Oh dear, that's an old tune for hopscotch." The proprietress blinked her dark eyes, and before she could reply, someone around her laughed and chimed in, "I know the second half: 256, 257, 282931."

“No, no, I remember it should be ‘28256, 28257, 282931’,” another voice retorted with a laugh.

"The version I remember also had 'banana pear' in it."

Different voices with different accents, speaking the same language in a foreign land, made the strangers' conversation lively.

The girl with black hair and black eyes tugged at the proprietress's sleeve, stood on tiptoe, and whispered in the woman's ear as she leaned down, "Miss Qiu is getting married."

"Okay, okay." The proprietress's smile remained unchanged as she led Furuya Rei and El to a private room on the second floor. She stopped in front of a wooden door near the back of the room. "Your friends have already made a reservation. I'll bring you some tea later."

"Okay, please bring some chrysanthemum tea."

"Thank you for your trouble." Furuya Rei watched the amiable proprietress go downstairs, then looked down at the black-haired girl and asked, "Is she one of yours too?"

"I guess so, but we didn't get involved in her business in Kyoto," Elle answered, raising her hand to knock on the door. Soon, the sound of tables and chairs being dragged came from inside the wooden door. "Because we had helped her with something before, she lent us the shop as a meeting place."

"What's the matter?" Furuya Rei asked casually as he heard footsteps approaching from inside the house.

"We've found her child who went missing five years ago." The door in front of the black-haired girl was pulled open from the inside, and she looked at the two figures revealed behind the door, adding in a soft and slow voice, "In the cryogenics room where the organization processes experimental subjects."

Rei Furuya's deep purple pupils suddenly contracted.

As soon as he finished speaking, the wooden door creaked open and was completely pulled open, revealing a man and a woman standing inside. Both had neat short hair and light brown eyes.

Upon looking down and seeing the little girl in front of them, their expressions changed, but they quickly reverted to their original indifferent demeanor.

Lewberon's pupils dilated in shock behind him. Elle waved at them and asked in clear, distinct syllables, "How are you?"

This was the first part of the second code. The two people inside the room thawed slightly and replied in unison, their English accents emphasizing the very last syllable: "I'm fine."

Rei Furuya felt his foot being stepped on. Under the gaze of the three people in front of him, he finished the strangely punctuated coded message in his uncorrectable Japanese accent: "Thank you, and you?"

How exactly was this code designed?

"Come in." The two people inside made way for the entrance, their tone more relaxed. "Thank goodness, Lord El is alright."

The black-haired girl being talked about waved her hand, pulled out a stool to make room for herself to climb up, and the short-haired, light-eyed girl quickly squeezed into a spot next to her.

Rei Furuya had already taken another seat next to Toshiro Zhuge. The boy, who was a step too late, had no choice but to sit down opposite him and glare at his companion.

The four sat down at the round table, and the proprietress quickly brought over steaming hot tea, soy milk, and several baskets of breakfast pastries. The warm aroma of the food and the rich fragrance of the tea filled the air.

Having been on the move since midnight, Al only now felt his stomach pounding, empty yet heavy, pulling at his heart.

If I don't eat soon, I'll get low blood sugar.

So she reached for a red bean bun, stuffed it into her mouth, and mumbled as she introduced them to each other: "Jianan, Anke, this is Bourbon."

The red bean paste was a bit too sweet, so the clever girl called Anke poured her a cup of soy milk, looked up at Furuya Rei with a slight smile, and said, "I've naturally heard of codename member Bourbon."

“We’ve learned the general details from the email, but it’s a long story.” Sitting across from him, Jia Nan pushed the steamed buns in front of him toward the center of the table. “You’ve had a long journey, let’s take a break first.”

Seeing the atmosphere at the dining table suddenly brighten and the girl beside him gulping down soy milk, Furuya Rei quickly composed himself, reached out and picked up a steamed bun, saying, "Thank you for your help."

Since things have come to this, let's eat first.

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Author's note: Morning Star, oh Morning Star!

How could you be so depraved!

Where has the virtue of daily updates and the determination to write 10,000 words a day gone?

You must write down the story in your heart! OuO

…

Actually, from this point on, many viewers might not like this setting anymore.

However, when I first started writing, the "Zhuge" I found was like this.

However, it's possible that Chenxing's writing style in elementary school Chinese is always poor.

But I will try my best to finish telling this story.

So there will be a lot of Zhuge Liang's own storylines coming up (awkwardly).

Because I can't give away any spoilers, I can only say that the character of Ragnar is very important.

In short, thank you all for your company!

I wish for 10,000 tomorrows.

…

Mwah