Chapter 85
When Ranbu entered the small building, he was jumping around.
"Dumplings, dumplings, delicious red bean dumplings—"
He came up the stairs while shouting out a tuneless melody, skipped down the corridor, flung open the unlocked door with a whoosh, and greeted everyone cheerfully—Knocking? What is knocking?
"That's right, that's right, this is the place! The famous detective, here to collect his reward, makes his grand entrance!"
The president, who was following behind, wanted to cover his face or speak up to Ranpo to be polite, but he remained silent and swallowed his words.
After all, Ye Yihe made a special call to reward Ranbu for his great help before.
If it weren't for Ranpo and Rimbaud's help, it would have been difficult to achieve such a complete victory against Kyogoku Natsuhiko, and even ordinary people would have suffered casualties.
In this respect, Ranpo and Rimbaud deserve great credit.
Therefore, Ye Yihe also invited Lanbo over. He was following behind the president at the moment, his eyes, which showed a few warm golden hues in the sunlight, were blinking slightly as he looked around the layout of the small building.
During the journey, his gaze lingered on Chuuya, who was engrossed in playing a game, for a moment before slowly shifting away.
"Oh my, is this the famous detective Ranpo who was in charge of finding the bomb back then?"
After changing back into loose, casual clothes, Dazai turned around, leaned against the back of the sofa, and looked at him with a smile in his iris-shaped eyes.
"It was a pleasure working with you last time. I am Dazai, Dazai Osamu. Ah, it's my first time meeting such a compatible partner. How wonderful."
Chuuya, who was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, suddenly felt a vein throb on his forehead. "...Who are you implying, you bastard!"
“As you can see,” Dazai shook the documents in his hand and sighed with great regret, “my partner is just a little too sensitive. He gets easily irritated… Look, like this.”
As he spoke the second half of the sentence, his collar was once again pulled up by Zhongye, causing his voice to become weak instantly.
"Chuuya...can't breathe..."
"Whose fault is it, you bandage bastard!" Chuuya angrily loosened his grip.
Even if I can't beat this guy up, strangling him would at least vent my anger a little.
Rimbaud and the president, who had been observing the whole thing, glanced over subtly in this direction: …………
This...this seems like the Grand Chancellor is asking for trouble...
"Hahaha, you did this on purpose! Is this fun?" Ranpo's smile grew even brighter. "Yeah, it does look fun!"
"…………"
The president was practically screaming in his heart for his detective who couldn't read the room.
Shut up, Ranpo! How can you say such things to someone's face like that!
On the surface, however, his expression remained calm and composed, his hands still tucked into the sleeves of his kimono, and he only slowly uttered a reminder, "Ranpo."
Completely forgetting the president's instructions before he came, Ranpo's smile froze for a moment after being called out, and he turned to slip away to the kitchen to find Ye Yihe.
"I'll go help!"
Although he had no idea how to help—then Dazai called out to him, "Wait."
"Hmm?"
"I heard that in the years you've been a detective, you've handled more than four figures of cases, and your case-solving rate is 100%."
Dazai Osamu flipped through the documents in his hand. "I need to deal with the politicians on this list, and I happen to have some information I'd like to consult this remarkable detective before me. I wonder if he'd be willing to help—"
"Of course, there's no mystery that even a great detective can't solve!"
Ranpo, whose hair was sticking up and trembling with every step, was extremely happy to be praised. He sat down next to Dazai with a "heave-ho," crossed his legs on the sofa with practiced ease, and leaned his head towards the stack of papers in Dazai's hand.
"Oh, if you need a famous detective's help, then of course it's me. You're quite shrewd, aren't you? Heh heh, since you're so understanding, I have no choice but to grant your request."
Chuuya, who had been pushed aside to make room for Ranpo, said, "...You're much more arrogant than I am when it comes to what you say."
The fact that he has managed to survive unscathed after resolving so many incidents shows that the fighting prowess of the president and Rando, who are responsible for protecting him, should not be underestimated.
While making qingtuan (a type of glutinous rice dumpling) in the kitchen and listening to their conversation, Ye Yihe thought for a moment and realized that this might be an inherent skill of top detectives.
Looking at Ayatsuji Yukito on the other side, his sharp tongue can really infuriate anyone...
Hmm, speaking of which, I wonder if he likes sweets. I'll ask Ivan to secretly send him a few green rice dumplings later.
The purpose of inviting Ranpo and the others here was not merely to fulfill the agreement or to thank him for his help twice.
Ye Yihe held the green rice dumpling steadily in his hand, wrapping it with the mixed red bean filling, but his eyes were slightly dark, and he did not appear relaxed or happy.
To be precise, inviting Ranpo was one aspect, but he also needed to meet the president, who was Fukuchi Sakura's childhood friend, to give him a heads-up.
But he couldn't be too obvious, as that would reveal to Fyodor that he knew the vampire wasn't dead and that Fukuchi Sakura was problematic.
Small actions like writing notes were the first thing to be rejected. Fyodor shared vision with him and probably noticed something was wrong the moment he started looking for a pen.
Any method that requires visual preparation or vocalization to transmit information must not be used.
Lip reading might be a good idea, but he wasn't quite sure if the president could read lips; besides, it was equally obvious that he had been speaking silently for so long while the other person was staring intently at his mouth.
The difficulty of conveying messages through lip reading while talking about other things is too high. Not only would he not know how to do it at all, the other person might not even realize that he is using lip reading to convey messages.
The people have been successfully recruited; now we need to find a way to get the message out...
Ye Yihe frowned as he arranged the qingtuan (green rice dumplings) one by one on the tray, preparing to put them in the steamer.
Feeling that his injuries were healing well, he also made two other desserts.
Ranpo was still exchanging information with Dazai in the living room, their voices faintly drifting over. "I took on a case commissioned by this senator," Ranpo said, his memory equally excellent. "It was a software engineer, hmm, I remember it very clearly. He left behind an interesting code, a language that doesn't exist in the real world."
"Oh, is this it?"
Dazai Osamu pressed on with interest. It's unclear whether he used body language to convey something to Ranpo, but he received a very pleasant "That's right."
A language that doesn't exist in the real world... etc. Being able to say this means that Ranpo can understand it.
Ye Yihe knew what to do.
A moment later, when the steaming hot qingtuan were divided into small bowls and served on the table, Ranbu followed the aroma and raised his hand to order.
Five bowls!
"Yes, but we can't waste it."
When Ye Yihe placed five of the bowls in front of him, he made a point of emphasizing this.
He still clearly remembers the feat of only eating red bean paste and not mochi.
"Okay, okay."
Ranpo smiled like a beckoning cat, nodded, and clasped his hands together. "I'll start eating—"
The others were a beat late in coming over, and seeing that half of the table on Ranbu's side was covered with the green rice dumplings he wanted, they consciously sat down opposite or to his side.
Pushkin finally got a bowl of fragrant, hot dessert, and he was so moved that tears almost fell. "Boss, you are my best boss!"
Ye Yihe, carrying his bowl of green rice dumplings from the kitchen, sat down next to Ranpo: "…………"
When Pushkin was fat, even when he was crying and sniffling, people could easily harden their hearts and make him run.
Now, Pushkin has trained hard and become a fit and handsome man with sharp facial features; his crying is surprisingly pitiful.
“If you are truly so moved,” Ivan, sitting next to him, said calmly, “go for an extra ten kilometers after you finish eating to help digest it. Don’t let your master down.”
Pushkin: "...You are as devilish as ever!"
Ignoring the two people arguing with each other, Rimbaud, sitting on the other side, was secretly glancing at Chuuya while eating. Chuuya noticed this and touched his face in confusion.
Is there something on my face?
“No.” Rimbaud shook his head gently.
"I just feel like you remind me of someone I've met before..."
Before Chuuya could even speak, Ranpo's delighted exclamation immediately followed, "Your memories have been restored!"
“…No.” Rimbaud frowned. “It’s just some vague feeling…I can’t be sure…”
"That's good news, it's slowly recovering!"
Ranpo happily continued eating the qingtuan, "This is delicious—ah, so delicious!"
Chuuya and Dazai, who were sitting on the last side, were arguing and making quite a racket while they ate.
"You definitely nudged me with your elbow just now, causing me to be killed by the BOSS!"
"Hey—Chuuya can't beat me, so he's trying to make excuses by blaming me?"
"That's the truth, isn't it, you bastard! How could someone with Ranpo's footsteps possibly get close to me!"
"Everyone says it's just to find space to put documents, but it's just too sensitive, haha, even height."
"...You still say you didn't do it on purpose!"
"Huh, which sentence did I say on purpose? I don't quite understand, Chuuya, repeat it again?"
“…”
Since they were only verbally arguing, Oda Sakunosuke, who was already used to it, simply quietly enjoyed the green rice dumplings made by Ye Yihe and did not stop either of them.
Anyway, it's not the first or second time... As long as Dazai hasn't reached the point where he'll get beaten up, there's no need to specifically stop him.
Ye Yihe ate the green rice dumplings and watched the excitement with everyone else, thoroughly enjoying himself.
At this moment, his head was tilted towards Dazai and Chuuya, and Ranpo beside him was not in his field of vision.
In that brief moment, Ranbu paused slightly as he swallowed the green rice dumpling and picked up another small bowl. His dark green eyes suddenly opened, his gaze clear and sharp.
…………
"I'll come again next time, and we promised I could try your sweet tofu pudding again, the kind sprinkled with red beans!"
After Ranpo had eaten his fill, finished reviewing the documents with Dazai, and played games with Chuuya for a long time, he finally picked up the extra box of snacks and prepared to go home. By then, the sun had already set in the west, and the clouds were almost ablaze.
The president walked beside him, finally able to organize his thoughts and prepare to properly explain Ranpo's completely unrefined attitude towards visiting someone else's home—how could he have already ordered the menu for the next visit!?
"President."
Before he could speak, Ranpo spoke first, his voice low and deep, a stark contrast to his earlier playful and childlike demeanor.
"Hmm, hmm?" The silver-haired president was startled for a moment before responding.
“Fei Jia gave me a message when we were eating qingtuan together in the afternoon.”
Those beautiful, dark green eyes followed his gaze and focused on him. "It's a warning to the president."
"Give it to me?...What warning?"
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the president's expression also turned serious. "Since he didn't tell me directly, it means..."
"There are people in that small building who shouldn't know this information."
Ranpo spoke calmly, living up to his reputation as a detective.
"Then how did he pass it on to you?" the president asked, puzzled. "I didn't notice anything unusual... a note?"
"It's a method that even notes can't be used."
Ranpo answered the president's question fluently, but his brows furrowed more and more tightly. "I might have guessed who we should be wary of, but that kind of enemy is simply impossible to deal with..."
"Ranpo?" The president called out to Ranpo, who was deep in thought.
"...Sigh, I still can't make up my mind no matter how much I think about it. I'll just have to convey this message to the president as he wishes."
Ranpo puffed out his cheeks, deciding to return to the topic at hand.
"Simply put, in machine language, there is only one language that is the most direct and also the most primitive—binary encoding."
"Do you know how instructions are transmitted between chips? They can't send semantically explicit text or symbols. Instead, they send a large amount of data consisting of high-level 1 and low-level 0 by constantly switching the high and low levels of the output signal. Then, they are encoded and converted into a language that humans can understand."
"For example, 01100001 is the lowercase letter 'a', 01100010 is 'b', and so on... In other words, you only need to understand the 0s and 1s that Fedia tells me to understand the message he wants to tell us."
"In short, what Fedia wanted to convey to the president was,"
— Ranbu used a clenched fist to represent 0 and raised his index finger to represent 1. After briefly demonstrating how Ye Yihe used blind spots outside his field of vision to transmit messages to him, he slowly read out the warning that was translated by his brain.
"[Beware of Fukuchi Sakura, he's dangerous]."
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