fictional spring

The spring night was still a bit chilly, so the maid went back to my room to fetch my coat.Qingzhi and I were the only ones left in the courtyard. For some reason, the way the child watched me quietly gave me a sense of familiarity for no reason.

It seems that when I don't remember, someone looked at me with such eyes.

It's a pity that I can't get the answer after thinking about it, so I can only let it go.

Today's night sky is sparsely clouded, and the stars and the bright moon can be seen very clearly.I walked to the edge of the verandah, sat down on the wooden veranda, then looked at the boy standing in front of me, and patted the porch beside me.

In terms of the height after sitting down, if you want to see his face, you need to raise your head slightly.I maintained this posture and asked him, "Can you sit with me?"

If he thought about it more, maybe it was because he felt that it would be hard for me to look up at him, so he really sat down-although he still didn't say a word.

It was unexpected to be able to respond to my words, and I didn't have any hope that he could say anything to me, so I said to myself: "Today's weather is very good, so the moon is also very bright at night .”

The stars are twinkling, and the crescent moon is shiny.

but--

"Ah."

An inaudible voice came from the side, which made me almost wonder if I heard it wrong.

Because when he turned his face to look at him, the child still pursed his lips tightly, and the expression on his face remained unchanged, as if the person who made the sound just now was not him.

The facial features that have not yet bloomed are revealed in the bright moonlight and the candlelight under the porch, the round eyes and the monk's childish face - I suddenly found that when he sat down, his figure looked thinner, and even gave people a look. It's a feeling like being bedridden all year round.

I don't know where this feeling came from, so I didn't say anything about my sudden thoughts, I just smiled and asked him: "Does Qingzhi like the moon?"

It must be because I like it, so when I mentioned the moon, I talked to me.

He had his head down halfway, but he raised his head when he heard the words, and looked at the bright moon hanging in the sky just like I did just now.

The moonlight shone into his eyes, which were originally plum red eyes, but their color seemed to be getting darker and darker, even revealing a bit of blood-like scarlet.

Not only that, but his pupils also seemed to have changed at a certain moment, and sharp vertical pupils appeared in the dull pupils.

I froze for a moment, blinked my eyes, and when I looked again, everything was almost the same as usual.

So... maybe I'm delusional.

"How do you like it?"

After a while, he asked me back.

At this time, I can actually be sure that he is not a dull person, because when he asked this question, the look in his eyes was like the stars in the sky, and there seemed to be some complicated emotions shining in it.

Maybe I remembered something, or maybe I remembered someone, I don't know.

So I nodded.

In fact, I feel the same about day and night. As long as the temperature is suitable and I can go out for a little fresh air, there is no difference whether it is day or night.

But because he heard this answer, even his originally expressionless face softened a bit.

At this time, the boy seemed to have removed his cold mask and showed the most real and straightforward feelings in front of me.

I looked at him and thought - looks like he really, really likes the moon.

The relationship between me and the kid seemed to improve a little bit after that, but only a little bit.

He still doesn't go out during the day, and even when we meet after the sun goes down, he seldom speaks, especially when there are many people-although the "large number" is just a few people in the family, he is therefore He became more and more silent as if he couldn't speak.

The most obvious manifestation is that when he is alone with me, such as occasionally walking in the courtyard or sitting on the porch to rest, he will occasionally answer my questions-in fact, they are all meaningless The topic, when I chatted with the maid before, the other party didn't respond, but he listened very seriously.

But when it came time for his father to ask him if there was any discomfort in his life in Yuan's house, and if he needed anything else, the child always kept his head down and said nothing, and every time he said a lot of words about his father, he shut up. The mouth is the end.

Father occasionally expresses concern about this, because the truth of what he said at the beginning of "not even seeing the last face of old friends" is that before he got there, Watanabe's house had been broken into by vicious thieves at home.

It was a cruel and dramatic tragedy.

All the valuables of Watanabe's house were looted, traces of struggle and struggle could be seen everywhere, and dead bodies were scattered everywhere in the house. Not only the masters, but even the servants in the house were all wiped out - except for one exception.

That is the eldest son of the Watanabe family, Watanabe Qingzhi.

The father found him under the veranda. After he checked all the corpses in the whole house, he found that there was no corpse of his eldest son mentioned by his old friend, so he searched carefully everywhere in the house, and finally found The boy hiding under there.

Because I haven't seen my old friend for a long time, and only exchanged letters occasionally, this is actually the first time my father saw Qingzhi with his own eyes.

Perhaps it was because of such a cruel tragedy that the boy with plum red eyes looked at him blankly, which made people feel pity.

what a miserable child...

The father thought so, so he took it back home.

He tried his best not to mention this incident in front of the child, precisely because he didn't want him to recall that scene again—even officials like his father, who had seen many cases, were greatly shocked when he saw the tragic scene. shock.

That case was taken over by Huofu Thief Gaifang, which specializes in dealing with arson cases and vicious thieves, because Hasegawa Heizo, the chief of Huofu Thief Gaifang, was also one of his father's fellow students in the gymnasium when he was young, so once the case came to light, Master Hasegawa will inform his father immediately of any progress.

"Some time ago, Pingzang said that similar methods of crime were found in other places, and a wooden sign was found at the scene every time."

Including Watanabe's house, apart from the messy floor and the bloody footprints of a large number of thieves, the only useful thing they could find was a wooden sign the size of a palm.

When my father talked about this matter, his expression became extremely solemn, and his back was straightened—I knew that this was respect and sorrow for the deceased.

"The wooden sign..." I repeated softly, and asked, "Is this a clue to the murderer?"

Father nodded, and pondered: "It says 'Bloodhead Danbingwei' on it."

I thought these words seemed familiar, so I remembered the case file I had seen in my father's study before, but what was recorded on it was only stealing and stealing, and only a very small amount of money was stolen, let alone hurt anyone. people.

However, what he's doing now--

"This is really..." I frowned and pursed my lips for a while, but I didn't know what words to use to describe it. After a while, I could only think of one sentence: "It's too cruel."

Not only is it cruel, but its behavior is extremely bad, as if it is showing off or demonstrating to the government—but from this point, it can be seen that the other party is a villain with extremely despicable methods.

And my father once said to me that real thieves should abide by the three rules of thieves, "Do not kill, commit, or rob the poor", that is, people who do not kill people, do not violate women, and do not rob too much property, and have firm principles.

Perhaps it was because seeing my expression like this, my father immediately realized that he had said too much in front of me, "You shouldn't have heard these words..." He hesitated for a moment, then sighed: "But The current appearance of that child Qingzhi may really be due to too much stimulation."

I can understand my father's mood, and I should agree with what my father said, but when I think back to that time, the child was sitting on the porch looking at the moon... Perhaps, there is something wrong.

That expression is quiet and peaceful - he is not afraid of the dark night when such a tragedy happened, it can even be said that only a dark place can bring him a sense of security.

It's really weird.

However, seeing my father's worried appearance, I suppressed the doubts in my heart. After all, this doesn't explain anything... right?

Because I heard that a thief who may be related to Blood Head Danbei was finally willing to speak, and my father hurriedly changed his clothes and went out, ignoring the conversation with me.I went back to my room, and when I stood on the porch, I stared at the clear and tightly closed door for a while.

I went and knocked on the door.

It was already afternoon at this time, and the sun was slanting down, just falling on the verandah and the barrier door.I have never seen Qing Zhi standing in the sun, and I can probably guess that he will not come to open the door for me.

So in the end, I could only look at the closed barrier door and hesitated for a moment—I really wanted to push the door open, but the relationship between me and him is not so close. , might be hated...

Then he would face me the way he faced his father.

Thinking of the possibility of such consequences, I withdrew my hand from the barrier, sighed, turned and returned to my room.

Because my father specifically told me that I might not come back for dinner tonight when he left, the meal time remained unchanged—Qing Zhi appeared at dinner time as usual, but he did not show the slightest doubt as to why his father was not there.

Until I half-hesitantly told him: "Father went to Mr. Hasegawa's house today."

Qingzhi probably didn't know who Master Hasegawa was, so he just raised his face and gave me a calm look.

I said, "That's the leader of the Huo Fu Thief Reform Party, which specializes in dealing with arson and vicious thieves."

After I finished saying this, the child's eyes changed instantly, and the pupils constricted, almost exactly the same as the sharp vertical pupils I saw that day and night.