Chapter 43

In the afternoon, the business of the cafe became quiet. Hoshikawa and Akira were working. When they turned around, they saw Conan holding a roll of transparent tape and doing something sneaky behind them.

"What are you doing?"

Xingchuan and Ming suddenly came over, which scared Conan. He immediately put his hands behind his back, hiding the things he had been holding, and stammered:

"Xing... Xingchuan brother? No... I didn't do anything."

Xingchuan and Ming sneered and didn't believe his excuses at all.

Just as he was about to ask, the wind chime at the door rang. A familiar voice rang:

"Is this the cafe, right? Excuse me, is Xingchuan here?"

Xingchuan and Ming looked over and saw the owner of the mobile phone repair shop from the morning walking into the shop and looking inside. When he saw Xingchuan and Ming, he immediately took out a mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to them.

"I'm here to give you a cell phone. You've broken it completely, and many of its components are badly worn out. I suggest that if you run into this kind of situation again, you should just buy a new one."

Xingchuan Heming smiled bitterly in his heart. He was struggling to make ends meet, so how could he afford to buy a mobile phone? However, the other party had good intentions after all, so he thanked him politely.

After seeing the shop owner off, he immediately found a charger to charge his phone, installed the SIM card, and turned it on impatiently.

After the phone was turned on, it was running much faster than before. Xingchuan and Ming breathed a sigh of relief. Just as they were about to open the address book to make a call, they saw that the phone interface, which had been running well just now, suddenly froze.

His heart suddenly skipped a beat. Could it be broken again? I just spent money to fix it!

Then he heard a series of alerts from his old cell phone, and his inbox was immediately filled up.

Someone sent me an email! Xingchuan and Ming breathed a sigh of relief. However, there were too many emails.

However, when he saw that the email was sent a month ago, he suddenly calmed down.

Oh, it turns out that my phone was broken before, so the emails from then are not displayed until now.

Cleaning up unread mail is a tiring job. Xingchuan and Ming saw that the store was relatively quiet for the time being, so they simply sat down and planned to clean up.

However, when he opened the email, he immediately regretted it. What he saw on his phone was a familiar murder notice. Looking at the time, it was sent a week ago.

"Hey? Did Xingchuan-san also receive this notice on his phone? Why didn't he open it until now?"

Conan finished his sneaky little moves when he suddenly appeared from behind Hoshikawa and Akira.

"My phone was broken before and I just fixed it."

Xingchuan and Ming grabbed Conan by the collar, lifted him away from him, and warned:

"Don't peek at my phone! I remember I told you in the exercise book that it's wrong to peek at other people's privacy. If you don't remember, I'll tell Miss Maori to watch you memorize all the exercises in the book!"

"Oh no, Brother Xingchuan! I'll go back then!"

Conan steadied himself in a panic, still with his hands behind his back, using his body to shield himself as he walked backwards, obviously protecting something hidden behind him.

Xingchuan and Ming ignored his little tricks. After all, they were upright and had nothing to hide. No matter what Conan suspected, he would not be able to find out the truth in the end.

He quickly checked his mail. In addition to dozens of notice letters, there were also several letters of sympathy from classmates and an inquiry letter from a comics editor.

When the editor called me yesterday, his cell phone happened to be broken, so he sent me an email to remind me to call back.

Because Hoshikawa and Ming were not yet adults, when he first started serializing the comics, he was under the name of a comics studio.

Because the division of labor in the studio was relatively standardized, he never had to worry about anything other than painting, so even after he gradually became famous, he still did not leave the studio. He just had an editor to work with him, which was considered a sign of respect for him.

After counting the days, it should be almost time to settle the manuscript fee. No wonder the editor took the initiative to contact me.

However, I can also talk about my upcoming collaboration with Maori Kogoro. I have already reached an agreement with Maori Kogoro, and the rest will be coordinated and prepared by the studio.

Xingchuan and Ming called the editor's cell phone. After explaining that they were going to change the style of painting and that the story content had already been decided, the other party readily took charge of other matters.

But when Xingchuan and Ming said that they would use this month's royalties to support the welfare home, they seemed to hesitate for a moment, but finally advised tactfully:

"Teacher Hoshinokawa, you don't have to use all your monthly royalties to support the welfare home. I remember that you have been working part-time to support your living expenses. Why don't you keep a portion of your royalties to support your life, and use the rest to support the welfare home? You can save time from working part-time and create more works, what do you think?"

Xingchuan Kazuaki smiled bitterly.

Using the royalties from his writings to support welfare homes is what Hoshikawa and Ming have always insisted on doing.

The reason why he was accepted by the Red Team so smoothly was largely due to his good reputation in sponsoring the welfare home.

I have just taken over the identity and if I want to change my original style of doing things now, I will definitely be suspected by those sharp detectives.

Moreover, if I continue to work here, I can get in touch with more original characters, which will help me complete the tasks assigned to me by the comic book.

But he certainly couldn't tell anyone about all these complicated reasons. So he gritted his teeth, endured the reluctance in his heart, and was about to ask the editor to transfer the royalties to the welfare home as usual, but halfway through he remembered that the repair shop owner had suggested that he change his phone. So he changed the subject:

"You have a point. How about this? Please divide the royalties into two parts for me. One third will go to me, and the other two thirds will go to the welfare home as usual. Is that okay?"

"Of course! Your decision is really wise!"

In fact, the editor has already advised Xingchuan and Ming on this topic several times, but each time he was politely rejected, which made him begin to doubt whether the other party had seriously considered his suggestions.

But he didn't expect that this time, after his persistent persuasion, the stubborn Xingchuan and Ming finally gave in. The success of the process actually gave the young editor a strange sense of satisfaction that he had finally made it through, and his voice became much lighter than before.

After checking the details of the new comic, Xingchuan and Ming hung up the phone easily. As expected, not long after, they received a bank deposit notification email on their mobile phone.

He couldn't wait to open the email. God knows how much hair he had lost during this period of time because of worrying about living expenses.

But when he saw the amount on his phone screen, which was much higher than he expected, he suddenly couldn't believe it.

Xingchuan and Ming counted the string of zeros in the account amount, and then thought that this was only one-third of the amount donated every month, and the actual donation amount was much more than this. He immediately covered his face with his hands in pain.

Too many!

That's a lot of money donated!

How could my former self be so generous?

I lived frugally every day and had to work part-time after school to earn a living. Even my usual comic work had to be completed late at night after I got home.

Even so, I still donate all my royalties every month to the children's welfare home where I grew up.

Even the royalties didn't pass through my hands, but were transferred directly from the comics studio!

How deep must one's love for the orphanage be to be able to do this!

Xingchuan and Ming sat against the wall, staring at the sky with lifeless eyes. Their thoughts were torn between the pain of losing the royalties and the self-admiration of their selflessness. It took them a long time to finally calm down.

He looked down at his waiter uniform, then thought about the hard-earned money he had given up, and sighed helplessly.

No matter how good you do, you have to ensure your basic living needs first, right? As a result, not only is your life so tight now, but you also have to work hard to make a living.

I really don’t know what my former self was thinking.

He reached out and patted his face to sober himself up, then found the phone number of the director of the orphanage from his cell phone address book.

When Hoshikawa and Ming went to meet Kogoro Mori just now, they had already persuaded the other party to agree to accompany them to visit the welfare home. The reason was naturally for better publicity.

The other party was obviously already dazzled by the fame and huge profits that he was about to get, so he readily agreed.

So the only thing left for Xingchuan and Ming is to make an appointment with the dean.

The director of the children's welfare home is an elderly lady who is kind and always smiles at everyone. Xingchuan and Ming have liked her since they were young.

This time when she heard that Xingchuan and Ming wanted to bring their friends back to visit, she readily agreed and even said with relief:

"Xiaoxing, it's finally time for you to come back with your friends! Among so many children, you have always been the one that has given me the least worry, and now you have found someone to start a new life with. I, your aunt, have been looking forward to this day!"

Xingchuan and Ming almost spit out tears and said awkwardly:

"No, Auntie, what I brought back this time is not a girlfriend, but the famous detective Maori Kogoro!"

"Ah? It's the famous Maori detective! This is great!"

The aunt opposite immediately became excited, and sounded even happier than when she learned that Xingchuan and Ming were going back.

Hoshikawa and Ming had heard that she was also a fan of Maori Kogoro, so they were not surprised.

Rather, he had originally intended to take advantage of the director's excitement in her hospitality towards Kogoro Mori to find out more information about Ryo Nagata from her.

I hope that other people in the welfare home can be like the director and be better at talking when their emotions are high because of entertaining the famous person Mori Kogoro.

It was not convenient to say all this over the phone, for fear of alerting the people in the dark before Xingchuan and Ming figured out the situation.

So Xingchuan and Ming were about to end the call, but unexpectedly the dean aunt changed the subject and mentioned another matter.

"I was actually quite surprised that Xiaoxing came back on her own initiative this time. Since you were able to support yourself with your writings, you left the welfare home and moved out on your own. It's been about three or four years now."

Xingchuan and Ming suddenly felt something strange when they heard this. When they moved out, they had already started drawing comics in the studio.

But I moved out because I was old enough to work and it was no longer convenient for me to stay in the welfare home. It had nothing to do with starting to earn royalties, right?

However, the dean's next words made Xingchuan and Ming even more concerned.

"For so many years, not only have you never come back, but also the child you have always asked me to look after has never come back. Xiaoxing, since you are now friends with the famous Maori detective, why not ask him to help find the person?"

Xingchuan Heming's heart suddenly began to beat wildly for some reason. He suppressed his sudden nervousness and asked in a trembling voice:

"Aunt Dean, do you still remember the name of that child?"

The dean's voice was slow as if he was lost in reminiscence. He paused for a moment before finally answering:

"Oh, I remember now. The child's name seems to be Xiaozhi, right?"

The author has something to say:

Little Star: Great! I finally found the clue of this 'Xiaozhi'!

Aunt Dean: You have been following this person for many years, how can you still say that you have no clues?

Date Ko: There's really nothing we can do. Who made Hoshikawa have such a bad memory?