Protect our prophets

"Milk tea?" Fumta Marui confirmed it again, some couldn't believe it.

"Um……?"

"It's too perfunctory to say that it's a drink that girls like." He was slightly annoyed. "Others are giving cakes——cough, I mean, at least you should learn what it means to do what you like? A little sincerity nothing!"

Songxue reminded him: "However, the cakes in your mouth are usually only liked by girls."

Marui turned his head and acted as if nothing had happened: "Is there any problem?"

"No," she explained, "so I thought that since you like sweets, you would also like sweet drinks like milk tea."

"..." That seems to be right?

He raised his eyelids slowly, hesitation was evident in his light purple eyes, he might have struggled a little in his heart for a while before he said, "Oh. Then, talk is better than nothing."

Song Xue was not frustrated by his reluctance, she shrugged casually: "It seems that you still don't like me."

Marui Bunta had already walked a few steps, and when he heard this, he suddenly stopped the car, turned around, and his voice was also menacing: "Isn't that natural?"

"……what."

"Now that it's all over, don't pretend to be innocent," he said with displeasure, "When you didn't come, everyone was fine, but you and Yukimura started dating, and everything started to go wrong! Feeling, and Nothing good will happen if you get too close..."

She couldn't help raising her eyebrows: "You're totally blaming the victim. Isn't it arrogance?"

"I don't care." Marui said in a wayward tone that didn't fit his age, and hurried back to the court.

……

Until they sat down in the pastry shop outside the school, the mood of the red-haired boy was still unclear.Moreover, he had no intention of hiding it.

There was a table between the two of them, but he tilted up the round stool, trying to keep the distance as far back as possible, wobbling around, making people look a little startled.

But he is indeed worthy of the title of a stunt genius, with excellent balance, always letting the round stool and his body walk on the verge of falling down, calm and calm, but focusing more on the daily limit. That little slice of strawberry cake.

It was just enough for Matsuyuki, but Marui thought it was too little.

Even if it was dessert before dinner, he was quite confident that he could eat... well, at least ten of them.

Song Xue watched Marui wipe off the last layer of cream base, amazed, and drank his own juice slowly.

"You didn't come here for the cake, did you?"

That's too childish, she added in her mind.

Marui glanced at her, hesitating for a moment.She added: "And you admitted it just now, didn't you say you wanted to keep a distance from me?"

He put down the fork and did not refute, with a slightly strange expression on his face.

"I just wanted to see what you found. Minister Yukimura trusted you so much for no reason, there must be some reason?" Marui pretended to be relaxed.

However, Songxue noticed a detail.

After he finished eating the cake, he stretched out his hand and held the glass filled with cold plum juice, but when he said this, he stopped, did not pick it up to take a sip, and squeezed his fingers slightly. A layer of fuzzy fingerprints was left on the outside of the cup wall.

Are you nervous?

He's holding back his instinct to drink—that is, he's well aware of it, trying to hide his nervousness.

"I don't understand why you are looking for me," Bunta Marui said in a calm voice, "The relationship between us doesn't seem to be so close."

"If it's the police, I'll answer it as a matter of routine." Songxue said.

He stared intently into her eyes, and after a while he said, "So, you came here specially to find me."

"Well, I almost know about the situation of the main elections of you guys. Yukimura-kun gave me the records of Yanagi, which saved a lot of time—"

Marui snorted: "So, we saw it right that day, and you really... so you are reunited again?"

"No, it's just cooperation to solve the case." Songxue returned a sincere smile and blinked her eyes, but she didn't seem to be trusted.

He looked very disappointed. A stool leg that had been lingering in the air for a long time finally hit the floor tiles with a plop, and then continued to circle around with it as the center.

"I really don't understand, Yukimura--"

Marui's voice suddenly stopped, his eyes jumped to the other side of the road through the window glass, almost frozen.

Songxue also turned her head and saw the scene of a girl with big wavy hair stepping into the back seat of the car.With such a pretty back, it is the daughter of the Matsumoto family who combines luxury and low-key.

She asked, "Do you care about her?"

Marui regained his senses and turned his head away: "It's okay, we've known each other for a long time."

"But, I think, instead of caring about her now—you should be more worried about yourself." Songxue looked calmly at his slightly dodging eyes.

The boy's expression also became stiff: "What do you mean?"

"Just now we mentioned that the alibi for the main election of the tennis club. According to the information compiled by Liu, we only know that Yukimura-kun was in the tennis hall that day and did not leave half a step. Time is out of sight of others..."

As Songxue said, she kept her eyes on the other party's reaction.

She paused for a while before continuing: "The situation that day was very chaotic. It was not until later that I slowly recalled and sorted it out, and gradually remembered some things that I had forgotten—or, temporarily ignored. When I went upstairs At that time, there were light footsteps above the corridor."

Marui didn't say a word, his face gradually turned pale, and Songxue's memory went back to that afternoon. In the silent crowd, he had almost exactly the same reaction.

"At the time I wasn't sure it was the footsteps, but now I think, well, it's right ... and, it's yours, right?" she said.

"..."

A thought flashed in Marui Bunta's mind, yes, Yukimura was right.

But this thought was still too vague, and he let it slip out of his hand before he further realized the problem.

The West Point room was not quiet, but the air around the two of them seemed to be still, even the squeaking stool legs stopped in mid-air.

After a while, Marui asked stiffly, "How do you know?"

"How can you be sure there is someone there?" Songxue paused, "It's very interesting to say, when I was walking up the stairs, I suddenly saw Ayanokoji's...well, the corpse, and blurted out—'Killing Tennis Ball'? I remembered later , I am also very puzzled, what made me think of that sentence?"

"Someone in school complained that the tennis we played was too violent." He said dryly, "every time Chi Ye finished his off-campus competition, he would hear such comments from others."

"Maybe. Uh, are you laughing at yourself?" Songxue was surprised, "You guys actually know how violent you are? I think that's clearly—"

Marui interrupted her unnaturally: "Get to the point."

"Okay." Songxue deliberately showed him a pleasant smile, "Actually, the key point is, what did I think at the time? Ling Xiaolu was a member of the support club of your men's tennis team, and also a member of the women's tennis team. It's related, and it seems that they can be connected. But it still doesn't make sense... After all, the first reaction of everyone seeing her is that she died by that knife. "

She spoke so dryly that she picked up the juice and took a few more sips.

"There's only one explanation that makes sense, because I saw the tennis ball live."

"It wasn't 'seeing' to be precise. I tripped over it on the way up the stairs, and it bounced past me, rolled down the stairs, and landed somewhere in a corner of the corridor. In the case of growth, I I should have realized what happened, but... as I said just now, Ayanokōji scared us all enough."

When she said this, she was slightly ashamed: "To be honest, it's very wrong. If I had realized such an important clue earlier..."

This is really critical.

Fumta Marui stared at her dumbfounded, and the stool legs fell to the ground.He didn't seem to realize what happened, and his body shook, following the impact, he almost slipped to the floor.

But he reacted in time, quickly retracted his calves, put his heels against the round stool, and fixed his body again.

"how is this possible?!"

"Are you saying that the police didn't search it? It took me a while to think about it, and I almost wondered if I remembered it wrong. The answer is obvious," Songxue said calmly, "Because someone found it before everyone found out. Hide it away."

"Who?" Marui raised his voice.

His eyes looked very nervous, and he pressed his hands on the edge of the table, trembling faintly.

Before Songxue said, she glanced at him hastily, wondering: "Why are you so worried? I only said that you were at the scene, and didn't say that you killed Ling Xiaolu."

"...I know." Marui seemed to realize something, retracted his slightly forward body, sat up straighter, and licked his dry lips.At this time, he finally remembered the cold plum juice that had been neglected for a long time.

He hastily picked it up and took a big sip, calmed down, his lips were not so white - objectively speaking, they were dyed purple by the berries.

"The incident happened at least half an hour ago. If it was you, would you have stayed there for that long?" Songxue paused and said, "Unless you went there for the second time to make sure you didn't leave any evidence behind."

Marui was silent.

"But it's impossible. Because, if you went straight to the scene for the second time, you wouldn't go upstairs in a circle and search down." She shrugged, "You must have seen it for the first time. , panicked, and heard my footsteps downstairs, and didn't know how to explain that I was there during club activity time, so I left in a hurry without having time to check if something was left behind." Speaking of this, Songxue stopped Come down and rest for a while.

She held the juice glass with only one third left in her hand and turned it around, feeling the residual coolness.

"Marui-kun, you are a very smart person," she said slowly, "You didn't make excuses, because you knew you were not the murderer, but you seemed to want me to think so..."

Songxue put down the cup, bent her index finger and tapped the table.

"Are you worried that the person who helped you cover up is Yuko Matsumoto?"

Marui was dumbfounded, and it took a while to speak, with a hoarse voice: "I didn't say that."

Song Xueli said flatly: "You said you hate me, to be honest, I also annoy you—you are really good at misleading people."

"It was Yukimura who took the tennis ball, Yukimura Seichi."