Chapter 36 (Chapter 35): Let the bad cold come! ...
I have ten virtues:
Thirdly, even if you ask sincerely, I will not be so merciful as to tell you.
"I have no comment on that."
Zhuge Tongzhi lagged behind Conan by a step, carrying a drink and following behind the boy who was shuffling along in oversized adult slippers. He too was wearing slippers that were too big for a child, and pattered as he entered the living room.
She couldn't possibly reveal Morofushi Kagemitsu's full identity; what difference would that make from directly exposing Furuya Rei's identity?
Zhuge Tongzhi couldn't guarantee that this man, who had sacrificed almost everything for national security, would be so magnanimous as to tolerate an uncertain factor who knew too much running around under his nose, especially since Conan didn't have many trump cards at the moment.
"I'm here today only because of the message you sent me."
The short-haired girl, carrying the drink Conan had opened, plopped down on the soft sofa. Watching Conan disappear into the nearby cabinet, seemingly searching for something, she couldn't help but say, "Sending text messages revealing your identity? Are you crazy?"
"You clearly have Shinichi Kudo's phone, so why are you texting me with your own?" Zhuge Tongzhi took the unidentifiable brand of cookies from Conan's hand. His left and right hands, still in casts, moved awkwardly as he tore open the packaging and took a big bite. With a mouthful of jam, he said dejectedly, "I never intended to reveal your identity."
She just wanted to get some of Conan's progress bonus in her daily cases, and while trying to survive, she wanted to slightly accelerate the generation of the final path. She didn't intend to get herself involved in anything deeper.
Conan, who was being questioned, was standing on a small stool waiting for the water on the counter to boil. The boy's gaze was fixed on the white steam gradually rising from the kettle spout, and he calmly replied, "If I send you a message using my old phone, it will be treated as spam and ignored."
She did indeed have this in mind. Zhuge Tongzhi pursed her lips and took another bite of the biscuit.
If the message is sent from Shinichi Kudo's identity, to an unsuspecting person it would be like a strange older brother suddenly asking you out at night—only a fool would accept such an invitation. She would naturally have a legitimate reason to dismiss it as a wrong message. However, if the message is from Conan, the meaning is quite different.
However, Conan avoided answering the first question. The black-haired girl lowered her head and quickly finished the cookie in her hand, then picked up another snack to fill her stomach.
After returning to Japan, she was struggling with the huge time difference between the two countries while being taken to the hospital by Hikaru Midorikawa to get a certificate and complete the discharge procedures. After going through all the procedures, she finally got home and was then forced to attend a more than one-hour ideological education session in the living room.
Deep within my heart, that weary soul, worn down by education, desperately needs the comfort of dessert.
Zhuge Tongzhi silently tore open the packaging bag, his cheeks bulging expressionlessly as he watched Conan place two cups of tea on the table.
“My mother left me some jujube tea; she said it helps with sleep,” Conan explained briefly, then turned the hot porcelain cup in his hand towards the girl and handed it over, continuing the previous topic: “Anyway, as soon as possible, I’ll have achieved my goal.”
“But you’re being too casual.” Zhuge Tongzhi closed his eyes in the steaming tea and said in a dark, low voice, “Maybe the first thing I’ll do when I get here is kill you.”
"After all, I don't trust you much." The black-haired girl held the cup in front of her neck and made a swishing motion, saying fiercely, "We're just strangers who've known each other for less than a month, Conan-kun."
"It's too late to try and distance yourself now, Zhuge." Conan flashed his crescent-shaped eyes and bluntly retorted, "What are you acting for?"
As soon as she finished speaking, the short-haired girl across from her slumped onto the sofa like a deflated balloon. She listlessly sipped her tea, then continued to stuff herself with cookies without saying a word, perfectly embodying the escapist attitude of "I don't understand what you're saying."
And... if you really don't trust me, then don't just start eating without checking anything first. Conan thought to himself as he took a sip of his tea. The rich aroma of red dates filled his mouth and nose, gradually dispelling the chill that had crept in after dark.
"Tell me what happened after you fell unconscious," Conan said, deliberately avoiding the question about Hikaru Midorikawa and adding, "And what exactly happened in Alice in Wonderland."
"Oh? This is free information from the detective?" Zhuge Tongzhi crossed his arms and leaned back on the sofa, looking suspiciously at Conan, who now seemed incredibly steady and reliable after she stopped pretending to be cute. He warned him warily, "Let me make this clear beforehand, I can't give you the reward you want."
In a sense, you've already paid the fee in advance.
Conan shook his head and said nothing more. He sat on the sofa and began to review everything that had happened in the past week. His calm and clear child's voice rang out in the spacious living room. Zhuge Tongzhi put down the half-eaten cookie in his hand and listened attentively to the plot points summarized by the great detective.
As she spoke, she gradually sat up straight.
…
The steaming jujube tea exhaled its last breath of white vapor dissipating into the air. Before it became completely warm to the table, the girl picked it up and gulped it down, turning it back into an empty glass. When it was pressed back onto the table, it made a crisp sound as glass clattered.
The hurried gulp of water caused a lot of air to enter her stomach, and Zhuge Tongzhi burped as she slammed down the glass. She quickly wiped her mouth, then stared intently at Conan, who had stopped talking, and said, "So, I am Elg?"
"Are you really sure?" She pointed at herself, slammed the plaster cast onto the table, and leaned closer to Conan, asking, "Me? Elle?"
"That's what you told me." Conan leaned back slightly as he approached, spreading his hands towards the shocked girl, revealing a pair of crescent-shaped eyes and saying helplessly, "You know so much, don't you know your own identity?"
No, I know so much because I've watched the animated series you starred in, Detective. Zhuge Tongzhi opened her mouth, but she, who always enjoyed easily deciphering details from a god's-eye view, now experienced the frustration of being "swallowing a bitter pill and unable to express her suffering."
But after carefully examining her memories before and after the time travel once more, the short-haired girl rubbed her messy hair in distress, gently pulling at a handful of stray hairs that had mischievously squeezed out from between her fingers.
The memory was very complete and coherent. She even remembered which month it was when the time travel happened, what subject the class was, what her roommate who went to the cafeteria early was called, and the professor was a highly rated teacher that she managed to snag after a fierce battle with her internet speed. The impression was particularly deep.
If there are no gaps in memory, how could an identity appear out of thin air?
"When did you stop remembering anything about the virtual world?" Conan helped her sort out the whole story, patiently guiding her. "Can't you remember anything at all?"
"I can't remember... and I'm pretty sure my memory isn't fragmented," Zhuge Tongzhi said confidently, rubbing his fingers together. Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him. "Do you think it could be someone else's account?"
"What?" Conan was a little confused.
"So, someone has taken my place." The black-haired girl suddenly realized and slammed her fist into her palm, saying, "After all, it's a data world. She only needs to change the model to become the exact same person as me."
Zhuge Tongzhi found it increasingly reasonable, after all, in her memory, Hiroki Sawada had taken the place of one of the participants in the 'Cocoon' game, and until Conan exposed him through the differences in their habits, his appearance was flawless.
"Oh no, someone else knows about your and Haibara's identities." The girl gasped, then thought hard for a moment.
“No, Elle said she will go to elementary school on time.” Conan’s train of thought was diverted by this wild guess. After thinking about Zhuge Tongzhi’s idea for a while, he suddenly realized and rubbed his temples to correct him: “She said that you and she can be understood as two different people.”
“There’s quite a difference in your auras…” Conan gestured meaningfully, and under Zhuge Tongzhi’s questioning gaze, he gave up on these differences that were difficult to describe vividly in words, and simply said.
“I thought she meant to keep it a secret, but when it came out, I found out you didn’t remember what happened at all.” The black-haired, blue-eyed boy habitually touched the bridge of his nose, only to realize with a start that he wasn’t wearing his disguise glasses when his fingertips went empty. He sighed and said, “That’s why I rushed to find you.”
“I think you’d be better off knowing these things as soon as possible, right?” Conan looked at the girl with a conflicted expression, his big, round blue eyes revealing no pretense. The great detective said bluntly, “I’m afraid you’ll be in danger because of a lack of information.”
"...Well, these things are indeed very important to me, but I'm safe right now, so you don't need to worry."
Zhuge Tongzhi's countless thoughts and plans in those few seconds ultimately succumbed to those eyes as blue as a bright, clear sky. She pulled out a portable backpack from behind her and took out a small piece of white paper and a color chart.
"I'm not completely ignorant about ale either." With her hair completely messed up, the girl jumped off the sofa and spread the note out in front of Conan, pointing to the hastily drawn simplified diagram of the inner ring of a ring. "This is Takayama Ryo's work. There are inscriptions on the inner ring."
Conan quickly deciphered the information conveyed by the Möbius strip-shaped ring. He listened as the girl showed him the translucent seven-colored card that looked like a child's toy, saying, "This was given to me by a stranger the other day."
Zhuge Tongzhi handed the card to Conan, whose expression turned serious. Watching him examine it against the light just like he had done back then, and recalling that fruitless night he had spent staying up all night, he said with a sense of weariness, "I've tried all the combinations, but I haven't found anything."
"Hmm... there's too little information." Conan ran his small hand over the smooth surface of the card, finding no scratches, and reluctantly withdrew his hand, saying, "That person probably knows your identity."
“I thought so too.” Zhuge Tongzhi slumped back onto the sofa, leaving all the doubts and clues he couldn’t figure out to the reliable detective, and said listlessly, “But I never thought that the ale was referring to myself.”
"Is this considered a split personality?" the girl said casually, but in her heart she was considering another possibility—what if the original owner of this body, the 'Zhuge Tongzhi' who had the whole past, had not disappeared?
The thought that he might be taking over another person's body gave Zhuge Tongzhi goosebumps, and he shuddered violently, rubbing his arms as if to warm them.
How scary, how scary, how scary.
"I was wondering why you always have so many strange ideas." Conan put down the seven-colored cards in his hand and looked at Zhuge Tongzhi, who was hugging his small schoolbag tightly, with a helpless half-moon eye.
The reliable boy poured a glass of water and handed it to him, reassuringly saying, "Don't worry, it's most likely just that you don't remember. Al has a very strong sense of identity with himself."
Of course, the sense of identification is high. Great detective, this could very well be someone else's own body. Zhuge Tongzhi took a sip of water, a bitter taste of 'life' rising in his mouth, thinking: There are shrinking pills and 90-degree driving here, and the person talking to you is a time traveler.
Split personality, two souls in one body, and all that, it's really like something out of Detective Conan!
"Let's start with the most recent memory gap." Conan rummaged through his mind and retrieved that hazy memory of the Dormouse. "I remember you said you couldn't remember the tea party, right?"
"Hmm, if that's the case..."
The two fake children looked at each other, and Zhuge Tongzhi raised his hand and drew a long, thin five-pointed star on the paper, scribbling out the straight lines on the corners to symbolize the edges.
The point where her memory stops is when she drinks the potion that makes Alice grow bigger.
"Should we try again?" Zhuge Tongzhi tapped the table with the tip of her pen, looking somewhat conflicted. Then, Conan suddenly stood up, supporting himself on the table, and looked at her excitedly, saying, "Do you know how to turn back?"
"I only know how to temporarily turn back." The girl blinked at the boy, who was initially disappointed but then became excited, and reminded him, "And it definitely can't be used continuously, so it can't be used as a substitute for the antidote."
"No matter what, at least we can find a way to temporarily change back, right?" Conan's hope was not extinguished by these restrictions; instead, it burned brightly in his eyes.
He grabbed the girl's shoulders and shook her back and forth, shouting, "Zhuge, tell me what kind of drink this is!"
"Okay, okay! I'll tell you, just stop now." Zhuge Tongzhi threw the pen back on the table, and with a series of clicks, grabbed Conan's hand to free himself, quickly saying, "It's about drinking baijiu when you have a cold and a high fever!"
“But I don’t remember the alcohol content of the baijiu.” Zhuge Tongzhi pointed to the five-pointed star on the paper and explained, “This only refers to Erguotou, the type of baijiu that comes to mind first when I think of baijiu.”
"It's okay, we can try them slowly." Conan turned around and took out Shinichi Kudo's phone, ready to place an order with great enthusiasm, but Zhuge Tongzhi grabbed his hand, stopping his impulsive shopping.
"Hey, it's late at night now. Even if you call the store, no one will answer." The girl with the frizzy hair looked at Conan helplessly, understanding his excitement while firmly holding down the child who was now losing his temper.
"Indeed... well, it is indeed very late."
The great detective belatedly rubbed his sleepy eyes, while Zhuge Tongzhi simultaneously let out a long yawn. The effects of the jujube seed tea had just the right effect to wake the two children from their drowsiness.
"Yeah—hatch, I'll head home now...see you at school tomorrow..." The girl, still half asleep, hugged her schoolbag and headed towards the entrance, but after a couple of steps, Conan grabbed her arm. "Hmm? If you have anything else to say, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
"No, tomorrow is the weekend, no school." Conan said, yawning again, and pulled Zhuge Tongzhi towards the door. "I told Ran that I have something to do and I need to see you. Let's just make up an excuse and stay at Uncle's house tonight."
"Reason? I can't think of a reason." Amidst the ups and downs of his emotions, a wave of drowsiness almost swept away Zhuge Tongzhi.
The sense of security with Conan by her side caused her last line of defense to crumble. She was so sleepy that she wanted to collapse on the spot. Even as the cold night wind swept over her face when she stepped out of the room, the only thought that popped into her mind was to cover her belly button.
Dragged along by his friends under the flickering streetlights, Zhuge Tongzhi groaned in pain, "Great Detective, please have mercy on me with your brilliant mind, I'm not good at this."
"Ha, I figured it out." Conan, with one hand holding the swaying girl and the other in his pocket, knocked on the door of the Mouri Detective Agency, turned around confidently and said, "Don't worry, I'll handle it."
A heavy fist smashed into his head.
"Conan! Why are you so late!"
A soft light streamed down from the open door, enveloping the two children. Ran Mouri, dressed in casual clothes, stood with her hands on her hips, looking down at Conan, who was staring at the sky, and scolded, "I almost went out to look for you."
"Sister Xiaolan, haha... good evening."
"Hey, Kirito-chan? What are you doing here?"
"Ouch! Sister Lan, this is because..."
Amidst the indistinct sounds of conversation, Zhuge Tongzhi groggily drifted into a soft, misty bed. The moment she was enveloped in warmth, the girl immediately fell into a deep sleep.
The exhaustion of both her physical and mental energy made her sleep more soundly than ever before, and the reversed time difference made her sleep until almost noon before she groggily got up from her makeshift bed on the floor and looked around blankly.
"Achoo!" Two sounds rang out in the room at the same time. Zhuge Tongzhi looked blankly at Conan, who walked into the room. Conan smiled at her, gave her a thumbs up, and sniffled, saying, "Great, Zhuge, now we've both caught a cold."
Zhuge Tongzhi: ...
Detective, don't tell me you pulled off my blanket in the middle of the night last night.
I made sure my belly button was covered.
Conan would never do such a thing. The two kids, who had caught a cold from staying up late and jet lag, were pushed onto the sofa by Ran Mouri. Each of them was given a blanket and a cup of hot water. They watched obediently as Ran Mouri, who had an appointment with Sonoko Suzuki, disappeared through the door.
As the door closed, the two of them simultaneously threw off the blankets, opened the windows, and sniffled hard, letting in the cold wind.
Bring on the severe cold!
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The author's note: Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth!
Black Chicken is coming soon!
Mwah
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