Chapter 41
When Usui returned to his dormitory, he found Kenji Hagiwara waiting at the door.
He asked the system in his mind: "Has he given me any suspicion points recently?"
The system quickly searched: [Given, over 1000 in the last two hours.]
"Hmph, I knew it."
As expected, Bo Yezaki remained calm and walked forward naturally: "How long have you been waiting?"
Kenji Hagiwara seemed to have been lost in thought, only snapping back to reality as Saiki Usui approached: "Not long ago. Where have you been? Why aren't you resting?"
“I’m not injured.” Saiki Usaba opened the dormitory door and let Kenji Hagiwara in. “The instructor wanted to discuss Narita with me.”
Kenji Hagiwara: "...It's Honda."
They used to call him Yamada, but this time they called him Narita. It's either that they didn't care at all, or it was intentional!
Usoya Saiki readily agreed: "Yes, about Honda."
"What did the instructor say?"
"Honda might try to exonerate me on the grounds of mental illness. If I am willing to forgive them, they will assign me to the best place after graduation."
Kenji Hagiwara's eyes widened: "Is this the instructor's intention? To ask you to forgive him?"
"I guess it means what the higher-ups mean."
Usakabe Saiki tossed a letter he had been holding to Hagiwara Kenji: "After all, this is a police academy scandal. Even if the instructors want to uphold the law, the higher-ups still want to suppress it... If the instructors really wanted my forgiveness, they wouldn't have shown me this."
Kenji Hagiwara frowned.
He was no longer a child and knew very well that even a profession like the police had its unfathomable darkness and that bureaucracy was everywhere. He just didn't expect to see it at a time like this.
No, to be precise, the last time Honda fired a shot, he was only expelled from school, which already showed the signs of trouble.
With mixed feelings, Kenji Hagiwara opened the letter that Saiki Usaba had retrieved.
This is an anonymous whistleblower letter.
The letter accused Honda of bullying a student to the point of suicide during high school, but because there was no evidence, the school coldly stated that it was because the student's mental fortitude was too poor. Therefore, Honda and his gang did not receive any punishment. They simply became more restrained in the following days and spent more time studying, which actually helped him get into a good university and even wanted to become a policeman.
“Because Honda had already dropped out of school when I received the letter, the instructor didn’t care. It was only after this incident that he gave me the letter.” Bo Ye Zaiji said thoughtfully, “Although I knew he was involved in school bullying, I never expected him to go this far.”
Kenji Hagiwara, who had been looking down at a letter, was taken aback by these words and looked up to ask, "You knew all along?"
“His neighbors and former classmates were in the class, and they overheard a little bit of what he said.”
Usakabe Saiki said in a detached tone, "It's great that someone like him can't be a policeman."
Kenji Hagiwara unconsciously crumpled the letter, then quickly let go and smoothed it out.
Bo Yezaki certainly didn't miss his subtle movements: "And you? You've come here now because you have something to tell me, right?"
Kenji Hagiwara looked at him with mixed feelings.
As they spent more time together, he came to understand Han Chuan Shenliu better and better. Sometimes, when he compared his impression of him with that of their first meeting, it felt like a lifetime had passed.
When we first met, I felt that he had an aura of immense power, and was a very unapproachable and dangerous young man. But now, looking at him again, I realize that my impression of him was really unreliable.
Han Chuan Shenliu was actually rather thin, and it was completely unknown where he got the strength to overturn someone twice his weight. Moreover, if you looked closely at his appearance, you would find that he did not look his age at all; you could believe that he was just starting college.
But for some reason, once out of sight, relying solely on memory to imagine, one can only picture a tall, mature young man... It's all about first impressions, deducing an image from his demeanor.
Now, Han Chuan Shenliu is sitting on a chair by the bed. Although he is talking to him, he keeps his eyes down and doesn't look at him. He is just casually stroking his watch.
Kenji Hagiwara was initially in a heavy mood, but seeing Shinryu Samakawa like this made him feel more relaxed.
"Are you angry?" Kenji Hagiwara asked unconsciously.
Han Chuan Shenliu still didn't look at him: "I'm not angry, you're the one who's angry."
“Ha…” Kenji Hagiwara sighed, “I am a little angry, but I think my anger is justified. If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize… Were you doing this on purpose?”
Han Chuan Shenliu finally tilted his head slightly in his direction: "What are you referring to?"
"Honda, did you deliberately send his neighbor to provoke him so that he would come to you?"
Han Chuan Shenliu finally looked him in the eye, his ominous dark red eyes fixed intently on him as he answered calmly.
"Yes, I did it on purpose."
As his guess came true, Kenji Hagiwara felt it was just as he expected: "So, you were just unhappy that he only dropped out of school, so you wanted to use this method..."
He pressed his knuckles to his forehead, breaking the eye contact with Han Chuan Shenliu, his head aching.
"No wonder you said back then that people who offended you would come looking for you. I thought it was just an exaggeration, but I didn't expect it to be true... This is entrapment, isn't it..."
"If you're not happy, you can report me and see how others sentence me." Han Chuan Shenliu's voice carried a hint of coldness.
"Huh?" Kenji Hagiwara lowered his hand and glared at Shinryu Hagiwara. "I am indeed very dissatisfied, but not because of this—what good does it do you to incur someone's hatred towards you? Haven't you considered what if he wasn't carrying a knife, but something else, or even some covert means like poison, to deal with you?"
As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed Han Chuan Shenliu's uniform, pointing to the slashed area: "Here, if he had cut any deeper, I would have had to find a way to stuff your intestines back in by the time I got there!"
"...He can't hurt me." With his clothes being pulled, Han Chuan Shenliu couldn't back away and could only give a stiff explanation.
"I'm just as confident as you when I take off my protective suit."
Kenji Hagiwara told a hilariously bad joke with a blank expression.
"You dislike him and are dissatisfied with the school's verdict, yet you remain silent and secretly set a trap on your own. If you still fail to send him to jail this time, are you planning to actually get injured next time? And when I get there, all I'll see is you lying in a pool of blood... Don't you think I should be angry?"
As he spoke, Kenji Hagiwara felt his temper flare up again: "Oh my god, I never thought I'd suddenly understand why Jinpei beat me up back then... I want to beat you up now too."
Kenji Hagiwara stood up angrily and paced back and forth in the dormitory. Suddenly, he turned sharply to look at Shinryu Kanakawa: "Why aren't you saying anything?"
“…That’s a bit unexpected,” Hanchuan Shenliu said slowly. “I thought you were angry that I used such underhanded methods…”
“I know you have your reasons. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t bother with anyone else, let alone set this kind of trap… If he had sincerely repented, none of this would have happened. It has little to do with what methods you used.”
Kenji Hagiwara pointed out sharply: "As for his psychological trauma, if he hadn't done those things, he could have apologized to you and tried to get your forgiveness, and the problem could still have been solved. But he chose to hurt you, and that's his nature leading him to his fate."
"…………"
Hanchuan Shenliu didn't speak, but he could sense that the atmosphere around him had become much more relaxed, even though he was already quite familiar with Hagiwara Kenji.
Kenji Hagiwara then asked, "Are you still angry?"
Hanchuan Shenliu seemed to be in a good mood: "I'm not angry."
“Great,” Kenji Hagiwara said, “but I’m still angry, what should I do?”
Hanchuan Shenliu: "..."
Kenji Hagiwara flashed an angry smile: "It just dawned on me... The other day you said things like, 'I hate guys who presume to know what kind of person I am, who presume to be friends, and then, when they find out I'm not what they imagined, they say with disappointment, 'So that's the kind of person you are,' I originally thought you were talking about Sato, but it seems like you were talking to me?"
"..."
“You don’t like to get to know people deeply, you just hate trouble. You took action against Honda more because you didn’t like him than because you wanted to avenge someone else. It’s just that he had something on him, so you didn’t have any scruples when you did it.”
Kenji Hagiwara suddenly began to explain his understanding of Shinryu Samakawa: "You became a policeman only because someone once said something to you that bothered you. You don't have much of a sense of justice, but you don't mind following the rules either. When social rules conflict with your own rules, you will choose your own rules. Personally, I don't think you're a bad person. You're just a bit willful. So, am I presumptuously assuming that you are a certain kind of person?"
“…No,” Hanchuan Shenliu replied, “You always surprise me.”
"What's surprising? Surprised that I didn't see you as a kind person who's cold on the outside but warm on the inside and is always misunderstood?"
Kenji Hagiwara said coldly, "The facts prove that you understand me even less."
After saying that, Kenji Hagiwara turned and left.
The system was dumbfounded: [Huh? Huh? What happened? You two had a fight? But why are you so happy?]
"It's nothing." Usoppei Kijima was in a good mood. "Killing three birds with one stone, of course I'm very happy."
Which three birds?
[I've reached the point of suspicion, and this is a way of retaliating against someone I don't like. It confirms that Kenji Hagiwara really does know me.]
"It's no use him understanding you; he's already angry. Aren't you going to stop him?"
Bo Yezhai: [Don't worry, he's different from me. He's a genuinely good person, he'll calm down.]
System: […I really don't understand you. Do you even want to be friends with Kenji Hagiwara?]
[I'd like to, but if he only 'knows' Hanakawa Shinryu, that wouldn't be good. Although I don't know how he did it, it seems he really understands the real me. It seems my plan to have Honda attack me was a bit redundant... Oh, I've reached the suspicion threshold. Oh well, never mind.]
The system couldn't help but complain: "How did you even manage that? With your acting skills, isn't it normal for people to get to know the real you after spending time with you?!"
Usui Saiki was a little unconvinced: "[It's not that bad, I think it's improved...]"
Sigh...does making friends really have to be so complicated? And I don't really understand why you chose Kenji Hagiwara. Is it just because he was the first person to say he wanted to be friends with you...?
Bo Yezaki thought for a moment: "He takes good care of me, and he's the only one who calls me 'Xiao Jing,' it feels like family."
System: 【...? ? ? Why do they seem like family?】
[Because I was too noisy when I was little, my family always told me to "be quiet." I thought that was my name. Later, my family simply called me "Xiao Jing" as a nickname. When I named my online alias, I just used this familiar pronunciation, writing it as Shen Liu.]
Bo Yezhaiji was deeply moved: [I never expected that even after switching to the pseudonym Han Chuan Shenliu, someone would still dare to call me that. It's so warm and friendly, and they take care of me like family. When he said he wanted to be friends with me, I was actually a little hesitant because I really hate all the agonizing things that would happen if they found out I wasn't what they expected. But after your warning, I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, so I set up a trap to test the waters...]
System: [...I think Kenji Hagiwara and I are both a bit unlucky, is that something I can say?]
What do you mean by saying that after being warned, he felt it was worth a try? Why do I keep feeling like it tricked Kenji Hagiwara?
"I also think he's a bit unlucky," Usakabe Saiki admitted. "But he's my first friend, and I'll treat him well from now on! Believe it or not, I believe it!"
system:【…………】
—Even his friends are so weird; they can't be good people at all. I really want to appear in Kenji Hagiwara's dream and tell him to "run away"...
--------------------
Bonus chapter for landmines! He'll drink everyone's nutrient solution as a midnight snack! He'll eat the landmines he threw (?)!
.
Xiao Jing = Xiao Shen Liu, written as Shen Liu and pronounced as Jing (shizuka).
Bo Ye was initially a little angry because she had finally come up with the idea of making friends, but the other person hadn't passed her test. Later, she realized she had misunderstood, and then she was very happy...
He was initially conflicted about whether to expend the effort to test the waters, because maintaining the status quo wasn't out of the question either, but thanks to the system's assistance...
Overall, he wasn't a good person, but he wasn't a bad person either. His personality was also a bit strange, which was related to his past.
But he's still very good to his friends.
He had a pretty good grasp of Hagiwara's personality; he knew that Hagiwara was only angry for a moment and that they would make up tomorrow!
.
Hagiwara: To understand Matsuda, to become Matsuda... I want to punch someone now!!!
.
Thin Leaf as a Child—
Thin leaves: balabalabalabala... (baby talk)
Hoshiba's mother: Be quiet...be quiet...be quiet...be quiet...
Later, whenever I said "Shizuka ni," Usuo would respond, and that's when I realized the child was using "Shizuka ni" as his name. He didn't respond when I called him "Saiki"...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
