After a long silence, Kuzu Yejing nodded again and gave a soft "hmm", confirming Tokiwa Shougo's question.
Then, she took a deep breath, exhaled it, and pulled the corners of her mouth, as if she wanted to smile, to make the atmosphere less tense, just like she had done in the past when facing the consolation of her friends.
But obviously, this time, Ge Yejing failed.
Is it because I heard the news from someone other than Gao Siwu that Kuzuye Hongta might be in the forest of the underworld in Heim?
Is it because I didn't prepare myself mentally in advance this time, so I heard about Kuzuba Kota from the mouth of a stranger, Tokiwa Shogo?
In short,
The smile that now appeared on Kuzu Yejing's face seemed so forced, so ugly, and so...sad to Tokiwa Shougo and the others.
yes,
If she can really let this matter go,
How could she hold those missing persons notices and post them all over Zaiya City?
Just five years?
Tokiwa Shougo opened his mouth, but was suddenly speechless.
To be honest, if Kuzu Yejing had shown his sadness directly, Tokiwa Shougo wouldn't have done this, but Kuzu Yejing did exactly the opposite.
Faced with this situation, her first reaction was not to be immersed in sadness alone, but to try to hide her sadness, and then wait until no one was around to bear everything by herself.
Because she didn't want her sadness to affect others.
And this was what made Tokiwa Shougo really stop.
What a gentle person...
Tokiwa Shougo looked at Kuzu Ye Jing speechlessly for a moment, then apologized:
"……Feel sorry."
Even so,
But he didn't regret asking those questions just now,
Similarly, he will not doubt the necessity of gaining Ge Yejing's trust.
He just couldn't bear it suddenly.
And the only thing he can do to compensate Ge Yejing is...
"Don't worry, I will definitely let Mr. Hongtai come back to you!"
Hearing this, Ge Yejing was stunned for a moment, and her expression that was still somewhat tense immediately collapsed, and tears fell from her face.
"Really...really?"
After regaining consciousness, she immediately asked.
At the same time, surprise, anxiety, uneasiness... various emotions appeared on his face, just to name a few.
She wanted to believe what Tokiwa Shogo said, but she couldn't believe it, fearing that it would still be nothing in the end.
Regarding this, Tokiwa Shogo looked intently into Kuzu Ye Jing's eyes and affirmed without hesitation:
"Of course, I promise! This is the king's promise and it will definitely come true!"
Gaining the strength to support her soul from Tokiwa Shogo's contagious self-confidence, Kuzu Ye Akira, whose expression gradually improved, wiped her tears with the back of her hand, and asked with a smile with a hint of crying in her voice:
"The king's promise? What is that...ah, is it because you are members of the Demon King's Detective Agency?"
"No!"
Tokiwa Shougo shook his head and explained seriously.
"It's because my dream is to become a king!"
After Tsutsuyomi heard this, he immediately held his forehead and let out a long sigh.
"Oh~~it's starting again."
Gates snorted coldly like a reflex, curled his lips and said: "Oh, the devil."
Ge Yejing: "..."
Ge Yejing looked at the three people in front of her speechlessly, thinking... and she said it's not because you are members of the Demon King's Detective Agency! ?
Being looked at by Kuzu Ye Jing like this, Tokiwa Shougo was really explaining seriously. He felt extremely confused, but he decided not to say it out loud.
Because he saw that after such an interruption, Ge Yejing's expression no longer had the distressed look that made people feel like their heart was being pulled at the sight of it.
Forget it, this is what I owe her... Who told me to rub salt in her wounds first?
Thinking this way, Tokiwa Shougo rubbed his face, and after Kuzu Yejing's mood was almost stable, he grabbed another handful of salt from the salt bag and sprinkled it carefully.
"Miss Kuzuye, can you tell us everything you know about the disappearance of Mr. Hongtai and the armored members?"
The salt fell off the wound, but this time, Ge Yejing's expression looked much better.
Because at this time, she had hope and a sense of relaxation in her heart, instead of being surrounded by heavy haze. Therefore, although the wound would still inevitably hurt, she would no longer be as painful as before. Sad.
She nodded, and after sorting out her thoughts for a while, she began to tell the story to Tokiwa Shougo and the others.
"On the day Hongtai disappeared, Xiaowu suddenly came to my house to look for me..."
…
…
The Kuzuye family.
Dong dong dong——
A hurried knock on the door suddenly sounded, causing Ge Yejing, who was preparing dinner, to quickly walk out of the kitchen and walk towards the door.
"Come, come, what do you have...Xiao Wu?"
When all the doors opened, revealing Gao Siwu with an anxious face in front of the door, Ge Yejing was obviously stunned.
"How did you..."
Before Ge Yejing could ask anything more, Gao Siwu had already asked urgently:
"Sister, is he...is he back?"
Gao Siwu's hands were clasped together tightly, and his face was full of tension, anxiety, apprehension, and uneasiness...
And when she heard Ge Yejing's answer "No", tears started to flow down instantly.
"I know...I...I'll look for it again!"
Gao Siwu bowed deeply to Ge Yejing, turned around and was about to leave, but was immediately stopped by Ge Yejing.
"Wait a minute, Xiao Wu!"
Gao Siwu's performance just now gave Ge Yejing a very bad premonition, causing her fingers to hold Gao Siwu's arm involuntarily, leaving deep dents on Gao Siwu's arm.
But at this time, neither Ge Yejing nor Gao Siwu had time to take care of it because of the anxiety in their hearts.
"What happened?"
Ge Yejing looked at Gao Siwu and asked quickly.
Gao Siwu bit her lower lip tightly. After a moment of silence, she turned around and bent deeply towards Ge Yejing again.
"I'm sorry, sister, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have left at that time, I shouldn't have left. When I went back to look for him, Hongtai was gone. I couldn't find him. He couldn't be found anywhere... …sorry Sorry……"
Gao Siwu kept bowing and replied to Ge Yejing, while tears kept splashing on the ground.
As Ge Yejing listened, her hand on Gao Siwu's arm had unknowingly loosened.
"Xiao, Xiao Wu..."
She looked at Gao Siwu in disbelief.
Although the logic in Gao Siwu's words was still a bit confusing, it did not prevent Ge Yejing from extracting the information she wanted to know.
"You mean, Hongtai...is missing?"
"……sorry."
Gao Siwu didn't give any positive answer, but her apology was enough to "answer" everything.
Click!
Ge Yejing's body couldn't help but stumble backward.
"elder sister!"
Gao Siwu, who heard the strange sound, looked up and quickly stepped forward to support Ge Yejing.
"Xiao Wu..."
Ge Yejing turned to look at Gao Siwu. She wanted to ask, "Are you kidding me?" After the painted face, Ge Yejing couldn't ask anything.
She took a deep breath and forced herself to cheer up.
"I'm fine, Xiao Wu... I'm fine."
Ge Yejing stood up again, wiped her moist cheeks, and once again asked Gao Siwu a question she had asked before.
"What the hell happened?"
Ge Yejing held Gao Siwu's hand and tried to pass on the power to calm down Gao Siwu.
"Xiao Wu, don't be anxious, come in and speak slowly."
Ge Yejing's warmth was transmitted through the clasped hands, gradually soothing Gao Siwu's panicked heart.
Gao Siwu's extremely cold hands finally began to warm up. While being pulled back to the house by Ge Yejing, he said with a trembling voice:
"This afternoon, Houtai and I both received an email from Yuya. The email said that he got something very interesting and wanted us to take a look at it, so he made an appointment with us at Warehouse Street at four o'clock. Convergence.”
With that said, Gao Siwu took out his phone, opened it, and showed the email to Ge Yejing.
At the bottom of that email was a photo of what looked like a belt buckle.
It was the "interesting thing" Yuya Kakui wanted to show Kota Kuzuba and Mai Koji, and it was also the "secret weapon" referred to in the title of the email.
Ge Yejing frowned.
Based on what she had learned about the recent situation of the Armored Forces from Kuzuya Kuta's chat, as well as the identity of Kakuzu Yuya's Captain of the Armored Forces, Kuzu Yejing quickly guessed what the thing in the photo was used for. What kind of secret weapon?
Outlander game...
A confrontational game that was created by someone unknown and suddenly became popular on the streets.
These thoughts flashed subconsciously in her mind and were thrown aside by her.
What she wants to know most right now is only one thing from beginning to end!
"Have you seen Hongtai there?"
"Yes, I saw it." Gao Siwu nodded.
"However, none of us have seen Yuya who invited us there."
Gao Siwu told Kuzu Yejing that she and Kuzuye Hongta waited there for a while, and after finding that they couldn't contact Yuya Kakui, they started searching in Warehouse Street.
Then……
"We found a door-like crack in the wall of a warehouse. Behind the crack was a forest full of strange plants. Hongtai..."
After a pause, Gao Siwu changed his explanation.
"Out of curiosity, we walked into the forest in the crack, and found that it seemed to be the lair of the aliens.
Later, we were chased by a green tiger-shaped monster. In the process of avoiding it, we discovered the thing Yuya wanted us to see.
However, we were too late to find Yuya, because the green tiger-shaped monster was already chasing us from behind.
Soon after Hongtai led me to escape from the crack, he separated from me and went to attract the monster's attention.
He asked me to find someone to help, and I did, but, but..."
At this point, Gao Siwu's expression became uncontrollably angry, annoyed and frustrated.
"No one was willing to believe what I said, and no one was willing to help. When I rushed back, whether it was Hong Tai, the monster, or the crack, they had all disappeared..."
…
…
Kuzu Yejing's narration to Tokiwa Shougo and the others continues.
"...Xiao Wu and I went to Warehouse Street to search several times, but still found nothing. There were scorch marks around the crack, as if someone had roasted it with fire.
According to Xiao Wu, the burned area had the same strange plants as the forest in the crack.
Considering the relationship between that forest and the Outlander game, we later went to find the lock merchant. However, the lock merchant pushed the matter away completely, and the rhetoric he used was similar to that of the policemen when we went to the Metropolitan Police Department to report the crime. The words were exactly the same, as if they had gone through the same training. "
Ge Yejing gritted her teeth and finished speaking bitterly, exhaled and continued:
"Xiao Wu is a very strong and good girl. Even after a very sad incident, after the initial panic, what she thought about was not how to escape, but to face it actively.
As an adult, of course I cannot just regress like this!
I made an appointment with Xiao Wu to find another strange crack leading to that forest, whether it was to take a photo of it as evidence, or to go in and find Hong Tai and Yu Ye.
The next day, Xiaowu and I searched for the whole day, but still found nothing. But that night, the disappearance of members of the Armored Corps occurred.
Then, on the third day, Xiao Wu..."
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