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Noel held Xiaoguang in his arms, opened the door, and looked at the house where he had lived for about four years - Xiachuan House.

Different from the minimalist model house at the beginning, four years have left many traces on this house. The large living room is no longer empty, but filled with various decorations of different sizes. There are several decorative paintings of the comic book "Traveler" on the wall, which are gifts specially sent by editor Saito. Noel's very deceptive painting style makes each picture beautiful and warm without reading the story.

Noel carried the person to the bedroom on the second floor and gently placed him on the bed. He sat beside the bed in silence. But soon he moved. He felt uncomfortable with the glaring sunlight, so he closed the curtain with one hand to block out the sunlight, and then continued to sit beside the bed.

He should wait for the other person to wake up, then make a joke and say goodbye... Well, there's no way to escape this, Noel's lips curled up into a smile, perhaps the current scene was too similar to that of the past, always reminding him of some things that seem quite funny now.

For example, I was tricked by the other party in the beginning... I was so naive at that time. Xiaoguang was so powerful and yet he bullied others. How could he be so bad?

I remember saying something like let Xiaoguang give his own head as compensation... Although I am happy to do so now, I am not so lacking in common sense as to say that it would be too cruel to Xiaoguang. It is a basic principle of being a human being not to embarrass those who are important to you.

Thinking back to the teachings of Xia Tian's parents, which he had not recalled for a long time, Noel smiled softly, feeling that he could finally face these memories that did not belong to him calmly.

He no longer hated the taste of the candy that this memory told him. Instead, he was grateful that it gave him a little simulated experience when faced with real candy, so that he did not do anything that would make him regret.

I wish you a bright future, Xiaoguang.

Noel got up and walked to the closet, squatted down and opened the closet where he had slept before. The closet filled with various dolls looked like someone's child's secret base. After pushing aside the dolls that he had bought one after another, Noel saw the black and white panda doll at the deepest layer. He reached out and touched it a few times, his fingertips stroking the soft fur, then he moved his hand away reluctantly but resolutely, and closed the closet softly.

Looking back at the sleeping person again, Noel closed the door and went to the living room. After a quick look, he pushed open the door of the basement. Just like the house in the United States, this place has been converted into a small base. Some games collected from all over the place are carefully placed here. It looks like an ordinary game house's small house, but there are various painting tools and a thick stack of manuscripts on the table on one side.

The ending of "The Traveler" is now finished, but it took me many nights.

Noel sighed as he put the manuscript into a special brown paper bag, walked out of the living room with it, locked the door, and put the key in the mailbox at the door. He got into the inconspicuous car that could be seen everywhere, turned the key, started the engine, looked at the address on his mobile phone, and came to the Tomorrow Comics Club where Leon belonged for the first time.

"Mr.... Mr. Leon!" Editor Saito, who always behaved maturely and seriously, couldn't control the shock on his face and shouted out. This shout instantly made Noel the focus of the whole audience. The burning eyes from all around made the originally calm Noel a little confused. Then he saw other people rushing over like zombies besieging a city.

"Ahhh, Teacher Liang, I finally see you, wuwuwuwu!" The uncle in the lead patted Noel's shoulder with one hand, and said with excitement and sobbing: "Really, alive!"

"Fuck, what Saito said is actually true, he really is a beautiful boy cartoonist!" Someone paid attention to Noel's face. Although he was wearing a low-key black coat and had messy long hair, it still couldn't cover up his overly superior face.

"I thought he was lying, but the fans' filters were too thick!" a female editor sighed. Obviously, she knew Saito's true form very well, and Teacher Liang's enthusiasm was the only one who supported him.

"What the hell..." Someone in the corner couldn't help but burst out in his hometown dialect, but it was not noticeable in the boiling crowd.

Fortunately, those who can work in the comics club are at least adult office workers who can barely maintain their moral bottom line. After a commotion, Editor Saito successfully pulled Noel out. He forced a smile on his numb and paralyzed face, poured Noel a glass of juice, and looking at his confused face, he couldn't help but teased:

"It seems that you have no idea that you are a best-selling mystery comics writer. Even within our comics club, everyone is your fan. Or rather, even though they are staff members within the comics club, they have never even seen your face. This makes them even more curious."

"You are the face of our comics club."

Noel thought that of course he knew this as he browsed the internet every day, but frankly speaking, he had no sense of reality at all. The identity of cartoonist Leon was only created in his early years to give Xia Chuankong a reasonable identity to make money, or to chase the image of Xia Tian. Later, there were too many things and too many variables, and this identity became a background board... Now he suddenly found that it was so important in the eyes of others, and thought of his own slightly hasty and rough ending. Noel's sudden conscience made him a little uneasy.

"So why are you here this time, Mr. Liong?" Editor Saito pushed up his glasses and started asking about work-related matters.

"Hand in your manuscript." Noel handed the manila bag to the other party and said, "It's time to finish."

Editor Saito seemed to have expected this. As an editor, he was very sensitive to the emotions revealed by the comic book author. He took the manuscript with both hands and asked softly, "What are your plans, Mr. Ang?"

"I'm going on a trip." Noel gave the excuse he had prepared long ago, and said, "Let's get everything sorted out today."

"Okay, then we need to sign some contracts regarding the subsequent development of the copyright, and also write down the beneficiaries..."

Noel was stunned. The first thing he thought of was to give it to Xiaoguang, but then he remembered that it was not convenient for him to do so in his current status. So he changed his words to: "Donate it."

Editor Saito seemed to have figured out something, nodded, and said, "Then let's confirm the ending and other matters..."

Noel stayed at the publishing house for more than two hours before he sorted out a bunch of things. Frankly speaking, if every contract was carefully considered, it would definitely take more than this time, but every time it involved the distribution of money, Noel simply said "Donate it" and it ended instantly. His overly hands-off attitude made Saito speechless, but he maintained a professional and even overly gentle attitude to finalize everything. After all, the sudden end of a popular manga is definitely not something the author can agree to unilaterally. Editor Saito did not mention any pressure and just supported him silently.

"Teacher Leon..." Before leaving, Editor Saito called Noel. The serious middle-aged man wearing glasses said, "I am looking forward to your next work."

Noel waved but turned away without saying anything.

———

"Conan, do you know where Xiaokong is?"

Conan, who had just finished taking the transcript and was taken away by Mouri Ran, received a call from Hagiwara Kenji. The other party's tone was a little impatient, which was completely different from his usual relaxed demeanor.

"Didn't Kong go home? What's wrong, Officer Hagiwara?"

"He should not be at home now. A friend of mine told me that he is out alone now and his phone is unreachable. I just received a message from the forensic department confirming that a bullet hit someone at the scene, and that the two people were confirmed to have no gunshot wounds..."

"You mean to say that Kong Ge was shot!" Conan immediately realized what the other party meant, "But he looks fine... Damn it, I'll go find Kong Ge."

"Sorry, I'm not available right now."

Kenji Hagiwara hung up the phone and rubbed his temples with a headache. He had just received the news from the forensic department, so he called Xiao Kong but couldn't get through. Just in case, he also notified his childhood friend to go to Natsukawa's house to check. However, before Xiao Zhenping arrived, the silent but technically terrifying hacker from the White Alliance sent a message informing him that the old classmate he had just contacted was now safe but could not be contacted. Isn't this a coma... Hagiwara vaguely guessed that it was Natsukawa Kong who did it, and reluctantly felt relieved. Now his mind was full of finding Natsukawa Kong, the culprit. However, it was really inconvenient for him to go there now, so he had to ask Conan for help first.

Kenji Hagiwara, wearing a police uniform, was standing at the door of the office of the Hakuba Police Commissioner. In the briefcase in his hand was the currently integrated data related to the Black Organization, as well as an evidence analysis report on the suspects within the Metropolitan Police Department in this kidnapping incident.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door gently.

———

Conan was skateboarding through the streets. He had just left the art museum. The elderly curator had no news about Natsukawa Sora, but told Conan that Noel had donated the ownership of the art museum to him a long time ago. The curator asked the reason, but only got the answer that the other party wanted to go traveling.

This made Conan even more anxious. Last time he learned that Kong Ge was planning to leave, but before he saw the hideous knife marks, although he didn't think Kong Ge would commit suicide easily, it was certain that something had happened.

"Conan, can you contact Kamisora-san?" Ayumi called at this time, her voice sounding a little tearful.

"What's wrong, Ayumi?"

"Conan, we agreed to go to the beach tomorrow, but mom asked me to stay at home for the next few days. I didn't want to make mom worry, so I wanted to tell Kong to make an appointment next time, but he didn't answer the phone..." Ayumi's voice was already tearful when she said this, "Does he not like Ayumi anymore? But I also want to go out with Kong, and it took a lot of effort to get him to agree. But I don't want to worry mom, and I don't want to see her cry out of worry."

"I'll tell Kong for you, Ayumi." Conan stopped and said seriously, "Don't worry, leave it to me."

At the beach, Conan took his skateboard and decisively got on the train and headed to the nearest beach.

Kong Ge, who doesn't like going out, agreed to go to the beach. He must really want to go there, so the place he is going to now is most likely there!

There were not many tourists at the beach as it was not yet summer, and the sea breeze was humid and cold, which drove away most of the people who wanted to see him. Therefore, those who sat on the beach and refused to leave were particularly conspicuous. Conan saw at a glance that the person he was looking for was wearing a thin black coat, sitting silently on the beach, looking at the ocean.

"Kong-ge..." Conan shouted. The man turned around and said to the detective with a smile, "Hey, Conan, you actually found this place?"

"Ayumi said she can't come tomorrow, and I'm afraid the same goes for Genta and Mitsuhiko." Conan sat next to Noel and spoke.

"Of course I could guess that, so I came here myself." Noel winked playfully, then sighed, "If their parents could still let their children go out to play the next day after they were abducted, I would be surprised at their irresponsibility."

"Is Xiaoguang not here?" Conan asked, remembering that Xiaoguang left with Kong Ge.

"He's sleeping at home. He must be too tired," Noel said naturally, "Actually, you can play with Xiaoguang more. I think you will have a lot of common topics."

Conan suddenly thought of Hagiwara's attitude towards Hikaru Natsukawa, and what that phrase "Kagemitsu Dana" meant. But now Inspector Hagiwara was too busy to bother him. He could ask Hikaru another day. Conan nodded in agreement, but he couldn't accept such a dull atmosphere, and couldn't help asking: "Are you injured? Officer Hagiwara said the bullet..."

"I was indeed scratched," Norse said calmly, "and I was frightened at the time."

“Why didn’t you tell the police?”

"I don't want to go to the hospital. I even hate hospitals."

Conan was stunned for a moment, not expecting the reason to be so simple. Then he remembered the wound on the opponent's arm and fell silent.

"Speaking of the hospital, are the two kidnappers still in a coma?" Noel seemed to be just casually changing the subject, and Conan simply replied: "They should wake up today."

But at the same time, he remembered what the police officer had said before, that the two kidnappers did not seem to be unconscious due to internal strife, and many of the traces had obvious problems, but he hoped to wait until the parties woke up before telling the details.

It must have been done by Kong... Conan had already guessed about Noel's skills, but no matter what, given the situation at the time it could only be said to be legitimate self-defense, at most a bit excessive and not reporting it. As long as there is good cooperation in the follow-up there shouldn't be any problem.

"Anything else?" Noel asked with a smile when he saw the silent detective. Conan, who was full of doubts but didn't know where to start, could only ask casually:

"Kong, do you like the sea?"

"I can't say I like it. I've never really looked at the sea." Listening to the waves hitting the shore, the damp cold wind blowing on his face, and the vast blue reflected in his eyes made Noel dazed for a while, and he said slowly:

"I have been on missions at the seaside, but I only had my eyes on the target. This is the first time I have sat down and just looked at the blue for the sake of appreciating it."

The amount of information in this paragraph was enough to overload the detective's brain, and he could only ask dryly: "So what do you think?"

"Very beautiful," Noel said, but turned to look at the detective's blue eyes and said, "Same as yours."

The detective was getting more and more uneasy. He wanted to ask something but he suddenly stood up and brushed off the sand on his body. He said, "By the way, Conan, you can actually call me Noel. I think you should remember this name."

The blond man mentioned it, Conan thought.

"Noel...brother?" the detective called out tentatively, but he covered his mouth and tried to hold back his laughter as if he had seen something funny. "No, this feels a little funny. It feels magical to be called brother by you. Although I am probably older than you, I still feel... honored. Hahaha."

As he spoke, he rubbed the detective's head, who was wide-eyed, and said, "You are a detective after all. How can you ignore the details just because of your feelings? That would be uncool."

Not to mention that you are the protagonist, both in the comics and in my heart.

Before Conan could think about it, he heard a call from Haibara Ai. The girl who had been following the progress of the case had been waiting by the hospital, watching the hurried crowd making a lot of noise. She said to the person on the other end of the phone:

"Detective, the two kidnappers are dead."

Conan stood there in a daze, and subconsciously looked forward. The man in the black coat had already left. He waved his hand as if saying goodbye, as if... he would never come back again.