Chapter 66 Seventeen Shotas

It was not until it was getting dark outside that the Scottish people discovered that Bourbon had sneaked away with A.

"What is that guy doing?" Several people gathered on the small sofa by the window in the hall. Scotland covered his face with one hand, his anger level rising. "I thought he came back with A first!"

Lei tilted his head and looked out the French window, frowning, "Ask Amuro to come back right away. The weather outside is not right. I'm afraid..."

Before he finished speaking, the cell phones of the four people present rang. When they opened them, their faces darkened.

Everyone received warnings of the impending snowstorm.

Scotland tried to call Bourbon, and then he stood up and said anxiously, "No signal... Could they still be on Mount Asi?"

The ski resort probably received news of the snowstorm in advance, and they were the last group of tourists to be sent down the mountain.

It's not dinner time yet, but the sun sets at around 4:30 in Niigata Prefecture in November. The sky outside is completely dark, either naturally or due to the coming snowstorm.

At this time, most tourists are inside the resort or in the shopping mall. Not to mention that there is an early warning, who would stay in the dangerous and empty mountains?

Yes, of course there is, isn't it Bourbon who came with them on vacation but now kidnapped the child and disappeared!

Scotland just hoped that he was overthinking. He quickly looked at Ley, who also had a Bourbon number, and got a very speechless reminder from Ley: "We had a little conflict before coming to Niigata, and he blocked me again. Have you forgotten?"

Scotland took a breath and the corners of his mouth twitched: He really forgot. After all, Ley and Bourbon rarely contacted each other through their phones. It didn't matter whether the number was blocked or not, so he didn't take it to heart at all. Anyway, Bourbon wouldn't call Ley when he was on a mission, so he just had to pretend not to hear what Ley said.

As a result, I couldn't get in touch with him at this time.

Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji also tried to call the number, but they all got the tone indicating that the number was out of service. The four of them had to confirm that Bourbon was still with A in the most dangerous Aserayama.

Hagiwara and the other man, who originally just wanted to find out more information about Granti, who would not threaten their friends' undercover mission, could not help but look at each other in bewilderment.

"I'll contact the rescue team now." Hagiwara Kenji also stood up, "Xiao Zhenping?"

Matsuda Jinpei nodded slightly to his childhood friend, then strode to Scotland's side and said, "Mr. Midorikawa and I will go and talk to the hotel."

Lei, who didn't have time to stand up, looked around and fell into a brief contemplation.

He and Scotland were the secret-keeping partners in the organization, right? Why was he left alone when the two policemen shared the mission?

—

At this time, the two people who were still on the remote cliff were unaware of the disaster that was coming, and they were still talking to each other slowly.

Bourbon didn't dwell on A's real age for long, because he immediately reacted to another incident that made him break out in a cold sweat but seemed to be expected.

When A called him just now, the name he used was not Bourbon, the code name of the organization, but his original name, "Furuya", which had long been buried deep in time.

Bourbon's eyes were sharp for less than a second, and before he could finish his pretend words, he lowered his head and saw A's palm, which was still in the air.

...Believe? Should he believe A, who has unknown origins, escaped from the organization but knows their undercover identity?

It was the lonely A who called himself an unfortunate person on the balcony when they first met; it was the A who held a cup of milk and said to him, "This is your last chance" that night in Hakata; it was the A who stretched out her hand to him and asked him if he could believe in herself once.

As Bourbon raised his hand, a phone number from Nagano flashed before his eyes.

"It's getting late." The blond intelligence officer finally put his hand on the child's shoulder and whispered, "Let's go back and discuss this later."

The air was silent for a few seconds.

A stood there and looked at him motionlessly, as if trying to find something on his face, and the hand in the air was never retracted.

"Is it because there is not enough time?" Bourbon heard A's confused tone, not knowing whether he was asking him or talking to himself, "But, we have been together for one more cycle than that time, why can't you choose me?"

Bourbon saw A blink slowly, and the frost on her curled eyelashes melted with the movement. Drops of water happened to slide across her eyelids and fell into the snow. It looked as if A, who never showed any emotion, was crying.

The smile and light in those eyes quietly disappeared, and he took a few steps forward, his hand still stretched forward.

A asked stubbornly, "Is it because I don't understand human nature? Is it because I was born a monster? Is it because I haven't behaved well and obediently enough? Why - why am I never the one who is chosen?"

Bourbon was shocked to find that A, who had always been submissive during their interactions, suddenly became aggressive and asked him a series of questions. When he said the last sentence, the child's usually cute voice even became sharp unconsciously.

Even so, A still remembered the rule that one cannot shout on the snowy mountains, so he suppressed his trembling voice and controlled the volume.

A He wasn't the one to ask these questions, and Bourbon knew it.

Or rather, it wasn't entirely because of him. His words were just the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Bourbon couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart.

He did not hold A's hand at the first moment. The reason was actually very simple, so simple that he thought A, who was usually so smart, would understand it.

This is just the caution of an intelligence officer. The way A behaves is enough to tell him that A knows too much, so much that Bourbon can't make a decision on his own. He can't be too cautious about the undercover identity, let alone let him trust A without knowing his purpose? This sentence is impossible from the beginning. A should have known to add the condition of "if".

He really proposed seriously that they should wait until they got down the mountain and merged with Scotland before slowly communicating and discussing. He was indeed willing to trust A, but this trust must be based on the condition that the information communication between the two parties was completed.

As an undercover agent, Bourbon was not qualified to gamble trust from the very beginning.

Bourbon looked down silently at A, whose eyes were red but whose face was expressionless. He was speechless for a moment. A stared at him for two seconds and then closed his eyes.

He retreated back to his starting position, creating a suitable distance between the two of them.

"I'm sorry, I know you didn't mean that." A's tone returned to calm, and he looked away. "You're right, Mr. Bourbon, it's really not suitable to stay in the mountains now. But, we can't leave in a short time."

A looked as if the person who was on the verge of collapse just now was not himself. Apart from the light red at the corners of his eyes, there was no sign that he had ever lost control of his emotions.

It seems like he is still that well-behaved, obedient, mature and sensible child.

A pointed behind Bourbon, who belatedly realized that the wind on the cliff had become even colder, and snowflakes were flying towards them in the wind. The gloomy sky didn't look like a normal night at all, but rather...

Bourbon quickly turned on his phone and saw the "Snowstorm Warning" pop up on the screen.

They are currently at a location where they cannot receive signals, so he did not receive the warning text message that notified all tourists. He only received this ordinary pop-up window without a warning sound.

"Snowstorm..." Bourbon's expression suddenly became serious, "Let's go!"

He bent down reflexively, picked up the child, and walked the same way he had come in the face of the strong wind.

A pulled his sleeve and shook his head slightly.

"No, it's too late to go down the mountain now." A pointed in a direction to Bourbon, looked up at him and said calmly, "There is a ranger's cabin there. Although it has been abandoned for some time, we can hide there until the rescue team finds us."

A didn't say how he knew there was a wooden house there when he was brought here by Bourbon, and Bourbon didn't ask either. He believed A's words without hesitation and changed direction immediately after he finished speaking.

The wind around them was getting stronger and stronger. Bourbon wrapped the child tightly in his coat, put his other hand in front of his forehead, and walked steadily towards the position pointed by A.

He noticed that the child in his arms, pressed against his chest, seemed to be trembling. Bourbon thought he was frozen, but after trembling for a while, the child's hand, which was not even half the size of his palm, tightly grasped the fabric on his chest.

"Grandy is a happy person living in misfortune." A's voice echoed faintly, "A is an unfortunate person living in misfortune."

If Bourbon hadn't been so close, he would have almost missed what the child said.

A asked in a daze for the third time in the snowstorm: "No one has ever chosen me. Is it because I have no heart?"

Just at this time Bourbon could already see the outline of a wooden house. He quickened his pace and finally arrived outside the wooden house. Then he leaned against the door frame and pushed the door open, then fell in with the child in his arms.

In the dark wooden house, the whistling cold wind finally stopped in his ears. Bourbon put the child down, and immediately pushed all the heavy objects that could be moved in the wooden house to block the door. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the house was completely quiet. He turned to A who was standing there quietly.

Bourbon took off his mask and hat, approached A, knelt on one knee in front of A to ensure that their eyes were level, and then he said, "It's not like that."

Bourbon hesitated for a moment, but reluctantly reached out and gently hugged the child who looked bewildered.

"You are not a monster, nor an unfortunate person, Mr. A." The public security elite said firmly, "You have a gentle heart, and someone will choose you first no matter what in the future."

"Really?"

"real."

"Do you promise?"

Bourbon hugged her tightly and promised, "I promise."

The cabin fell silent again. After a while, A spoke again: "But, I really don't have a heart? Listen, Mr. Fūya, I actually don't have a pulse, you know?"

Bourbon subconsciously felt the side of his face, then his whole body stiffened and he almost jumped up: there was actually no pulse under the child's cold skin!

He slowly loosened his arms, and A slipped out briskly, looking at him innocently.

Bourbon heaved a sigh of relief, and a smile appeared unconsciously at the corner of his lips.

A was still standing there, and the happiness and light that had disappeared from his eyes had returned.

"Thank you, Mr. Furuya," A said, "I am very happy now."