The sun had almost sunk below the horizon and night had fallen. The lights in the house were still off, but the neon lights outside had already been turned on one by one, bringing some light into the house as well.

Jiang Lai smiled and said, "Hey, Xiao Zhao, do you want to have a heart-to-heart talk with Brother Jiang Lai? What do you want to talk about? Is there anything interesting that happened in school recently?"

Kurosawa Akira didn't speak at first. His gray-green eyes silently stared at Jiang Lai's exposed neck. Although medicine had been applied, the bruises and purple fingerprints were not so easy to fade. At this time, they were still mottled on Jiang Lai's neck, looking very scary.

His gaze was like something cold and gloomy, fixed on those miserable traces.

Jiang Lai noticed Kurosawa Zhao's gaze, raised his hand and touched his neck, letting out a slight inhalation sound: "Hiss... It still hurts a little. But it's almost healed!" He smiled and said, "Don't worry, Xiao Zhao."

"..." Kurosawa Akira tilted his head. He didn't say anything. Instead, he stared at the black-haired young man and said softly, "Can I pinch you, Brother Jiang Lai?"

His voice was childish and innocent, but the words he spoke were very strange.

The neon lights outside flickered on the silver-haired boy's profile. His expression was as calm as dead water, leaving only coldness and decay, attributes that did not match his age.

"Ah?" Jiang Lai was stunned, and then moved closer as if joking, "How could Xiao Zhao have such violent thoughts?" His black hair formed a sharp contrast with the white hospital gown on his body.

The silver-haired boy didn't say much. He raised his arms and clasped his two little hands around Jiang Lai's neck: "It's not just an idea. I can put it into practice." He murmured in a low voice.

Kurosawa Akira's hands gradually closed, and the bruises on Jiang Lai's neck were compressed and sent out pain signals, accompanied by a slight feeling of suffocation due to reduced oxygen. But Jiang Lai's expression remained calm. He did not resist, but looked at Kurosawa Akira gently and trustingly: "Hey? Xiao Zhao will really do it?"

"..." Kurosawa Akira pursed his lips, raised his eyes and looked into those warm brown eyes. After a few seconds, he let go of his hand, then hugged Jiang Lai and threw himself into his arms.

"Okay, okay, it's okay, don't worry." Jiang Lai hugged him, patted his back and smiled, "Well, Xiao Zhao wanted to feel my pulse and temperature just now that I'm still alive? Don't be afraid, I'm here."

Kurosawa Akira hugged Jiang Lai with great strength, so strong that the injuries on Jiang Lai's body from being kicked and beaten were slightly painful, but he still had a smile on his face and soothed the child's emotions.

"Why..." Kurosawa Akira buried his head in the other's arms, crying with a little bit of forbearance, "Why do you always have to go through this? Why do I always have to face this result?"

"Eh? Sorry, sorry, I made Xiao Zhao worry." Jiang Lai pursed his lips. He seemed to want to say something more, but considering that the person in front of him was the elementary school student Lu Zhao, he finally didn't mention it. He just started to recite Mencius' ancient text half seriously and half jokingly, "Probably, when God wants to give a man a great responsibility, he must first make his heart and mind suffer, and his muscles and bones work hard..."

"Brother Jiang Lai." Kurosawa Akira interrupted him, raised his face, revealing his gray-green eyes, "You don't have to worry about anything."

Jiang Lai was slightly stunned.

"No matter which me it is, it's still me." Under the moonlight, the gray-green eyes were even clearer and more natural. "After all, it has always been the same person."

Jiang Lai stared into those eyes, and the word "personality fusion" emerged in his mind.

——Green is the naive side of Kurosawa Akira, belonging to the childish side of a seven-year-old, while Gray is the mature and stable side of Kurosawa Akira, belonging to the side that has experienced twenty or thirty years. When they are combined, they are the real and complete Kurosawa Akira.

That is him with gray-green eyes at this moment.

Jiang Lai smiled, relaxed, and began to explain normally: "Actually, I had it all planned. There were people around who looked like members of the organization, so I couldn't expose my uniqueness. And the key point was that I didn't want the police to catch the target person, so I pretended to be a hostage."

Jiang Lai tells the story in detail, also narrating the story inside the cylindrical building.

Kurosawa Akira listened to Jiang Lai's narration in silence, then raised his eyes and said: "So everything was your plan, including these marks from pinching and beatings? You let him pinch and beat you for a more realistic effect?" The words were very calm, but there was a kind of calm before the storm.

"Yes, yes." Jiang Lai nodded with a smile. When he saw the expressionless Kurosawa Akira, he vaguely sensed the other party's anger. He slowly put away his smile and tentatively called out, "...Xiao Zhao?"

"You use your body and life as a bargaining chip and part of your plan. Don't you feel pain? Don't you feel scared?" Kurosawa Akira stared at Jiang Lai closely and asked a series of questions. "Whether you are an ordinary person in the broad sense or not, you are a person with only one life. What if something goes wrong? What if something goes wrong beyond your expectations?"

"Ah..." Jiang Lai didn't expect the other party to ask such a long list of questions. He blinked, touched his nose and answered, "Well, generally speaking, it's not a big problem. It's mainly considering the better results for everyone later..."

"Aren't you part of everyone? Why do you always exclude yourself?" Kurosawa Akira slightly revealed his sharp canine teeth. "Of course, the good results must include yourself. If something happens to you, this will definitely not be a perfect ending!"

Although the child's voice is immature, it is sonorous and powerful.

Jiang Lai was slightly stunned. The young boy in front of him was heaving with excitement. His gray-green eyes sparkled with a few sparkles. Then he buried his head in Jiang Lai's arms and said in a muffled voice, "I care about you a lot, I care about you a lot..." His little hand grasped the corner of Jiang Lai's hospital gown, "So, please don't put all your heart on others, keep more for yourself."

"..." Jiang Lai lowered his eyes, stroked the other's smooth silver hair, and replied softly, "Okay, I will."

"If this is the incompetence of a good child, then I don't want to be a good child." Kurosawa Akira continued to speak sullenly. He held Jiang Lai's wrist tightly, like a strong lock, "...I want to go against your wishes and do what I think is right - I want to be your bad child."

Jiang Lai blinked, then smiled: "Don't worry, Xiao Zhao, I listened to you." He replied seriously, "Next time I will pay more attention and come up with a more complete plan. Try not to hurt myself."

"No." Kurosawa Akira immediately raised his head, "I don't want to hear this. What I want to hear is you say, 'I will ask you for help next time.'"

"Huh?" Jiang Lai was startled.

"You taught me to get in touch with and communicate with a wider range of people. You taught me to make friends, to rely on and trust, to help and seek help." Kurosawa Akira said in a childish voice, "You have taught me, and you must do it yourself."

"In the amusement park, Conan told me that I have never been alone." The expression of the silver-haired boy softened, and then he raised his eyes and stared at Jiang Lai, saying, "You too. You have never been alone, and you are not alone at all."

The tone of the silver-haired boy in front of him was firm and serious. Jiang Lai slightly widened his eyes. He wanted to say, "I don't want you to get hurt, so I want to bear it myself." Kurosawa Akira's gray-green eyes also wrote a reply: "It's too tiring to be alone. We also don't want you to get hurt. Please don't push away everyone's love and protection."

"You have friends, and you have me." Kurosawa Akira's eyes sparkled, "I don't want to see you become strong alone - let's go through thick and thin together."

He held Jiang Lai's hand tightly, conveying his warmth and persistence.

Jiang Lai was silent for a few seconds. He looked at Kurosawa Akira and finally raised the corners of his lips. His expression was soft and his eyes were warm. "...Okay." He said softly, "I have you."

——Wind, rain, and boat together.

"The teacher at school said that the power of unity is infinite." Kurosawa Akihiro smiled, "So when we are together, we are the most powerful!"

"Brother Jiang Lai, you can tell me anything you want to say. If there is something, don't hide it from us." Kurosawa Akira tilted his head, "If I can't help you, maybe other brothers and sisters can."

"Okay." Jiang Lai rubbed the other person's face, "Next time I make a plan, I will let you guys participate together - except for special circumstances."

When Kurosawa Akira heard the last sentence, he raised his round gray-green eyes and glared at him.

"Special circumstances refer to situations where I am alone and can only be with me," Jiang Lai coughed twice and explained with a smile, "But don't worry, I will definitely protect myself at that time."

"I don't want to see Brother Jiang Lai get hurt." Kurosawa Akira pouted, "Sometimes you even leave the wounds hidden inside your clothes."

"Well... this is a rare case. I must be more careful next time." Jiang Lai looked up at the sky, and then half-jokingly said, "How about you check my body in the future to see if I'm injured?"

"Well, Jiang Lai, you have to protect yourself anyway." Kurosawa Akira hugged Jiang Lai and rubbed him, "Don't gamble with your own life. We will all be worried."

"Okay~" Jiang Lai nodded in response, "Thank you Xiao Zhao for what you said to me." His warm brown eyes curved like crescents, and his expression was relaxed, "In the future... I will rely on you a little more."

——We have never been alone, and we will always be in the same boat.

Jiang Lai hugged Kurosawa Akira's small body, and Kurosawa Akira also put his arms around the black-haired young man, creating a warm and happy parent-child scene.

"By the way," Kurosawa Akira leaned into Jiang Lai's arms and looked up, "Brother Midorikawa heard about your hospitalization and is coming back."

Jing Guang? Jiang Lai raised his eyebrows slightly.

Morofushi Keimitsu did not join them on the amusement park trip because he said he had something to do and needed to go on a long trip. So during the days when he was hospitalized and unconscious, it was Hagihara Kenji who took care of Kurosawa Akira.

Is Jingguang coming back now?

"He said he wanted to come and see what was wrong with you." Kurosawa Akira blinked his gray-green eyes, "How did you end up in the hospital again?"

Jiang Lai (thoughts sublime.jpg): I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt guilty, as if I had done something wrong and was facing my mother…

The author has something to say: [Morofushi Kagemitsu is about to arrive at the battlefield]

Jiang Lai: The nervousness of facing a male mother (putting hands in pockets)