After making an appointment with Song Yingchen at 8 p.m. at the Sakura Apartment, Chiba needed plenty of time to think about how to tell him about this incredible and real thing.

When the time came to 7:40, she took out the sour plum soup that had been put in the refrigerator half an hour ago, touched the bottle, and the temperature was just right.

Song Yingchen arrived as promised, and as soon as he entered the door, he walked straight to the living room and sat down.

She handed over a cup of sour plum soup.

"Thanks, I'm dying of thirst." He took the cup and purred it away.

She poured another glass.

"Didn't disturb your rest, did you?" He asked politely.

She smiled wryly and shook her head: "Not that early. ”

"That's good, I'm afraid of delaying your sleep."

"If you don't make a fool of yourself, how can you put me to sleep." She said with a little jokingness, hoping that the atmosphere would not be too solemn.

Song Yingchen was seen through and smiled stupidly.

"Can you tell me now?"

Chiba sighed slightly, and said honestly: "I did live in your house under the arrangement of another person, and I lied before that my mother knew Aunt Lu, but it was actually to protect that person." ”

"Who is she?"

"A mysterious person, I don't know, and neither does Aunt Lu."

Song Yingchen was confused by such an answer.

"What? Neither of you know each other? ”

She felt like a pyramid schemer who had been caught up in the jokes, but she patiently explained.

"You also think it's weird, Aunt Lu and I feel the same way. But I don't know if you've tasted it, but that mysterious man has the ability to make us involuntarily. ”

"I understand, but I can't figure it out."

"I mentioned to you about my mother, and the secret that has lingered in my mind for more than ten years has become my heart disease. If the heart disease is not removed, there is no hope for the days to come. Aunt Lu may be the same, if you don't find out the murderer of your aunt, life will be torture for her. ”

Song Yingchen was a little stunned, and his gaze wandered between his bored fingers.

"Yes, it's better for my mother to play with my aunt, if something like that happens, and it involves my grandfather, she must be uneasy, and she has to get out of the way when she goes to the soup."

"The mysterious man said that he knew the truth, but he had to be told by Aunt Lu and I to complete the task, and this is where we can't help ourselves."

"What task?"

"Our tasks are different, I don't know about Aunt Lu, but one of them is to let me live here." Chiba looked around the living room, and the scene of coming to Lucheng came to mind, "My current mission is to investigate someone, I'm sorry I can't tell you for the time being." You might ask why you should trust that person, but to be honest, the task she assigned to me did help me. ”

"How did she help you?"

Thinking of the inextricable relationship between Huanyu, He Chong, and Song Yingchen, she swallowed the truth back.

"It's done, it's not important." Bypassing this question, she said, "According to the mysterious man, I will probably have to stay in Lucheng for a year to find out who and where my mother's murderer is. ”

"How would she know? I mean, you're not from Lucheng at all, how could that mysterious woman know about your mother and my aunt at the same time? ”

"I don't know why." Chiba buried her head, which was also her long-term bruise, "You ask me why I believe it, I can't answer, but I can't find a reason not to believe it." ”

"Have you and my mom been brainwashed? A person who doesn't know his identity at all just says a few words, and you will follow the rules and perform any tasks. Have you ever thought about it, could she be using you to achieve some ulterior secret? ”

"She didn't ask me for money, she didn't extort anything immoral, and the tasks she had been assigned so far didn't show any harm to me or any benefit to her. As if she was deliberately playing a game, she pulled a long, long thread and asked me to pick up the thread from a distance and slowly walk to the truth one by one. ”

"Ridiculous." Song Yingchen came up with such a word, a little angry, "You and my mother must have been confused." The police haven't investigated anything, who else can know? Could it be that this person has been in two different places in two cases? I don't believe it. ”

"Yes, I've asked myself these questions a hundred times, but one can only resort to intuition when reason doesn't work. My intuition told me that she knew the truth, not like she was lying, this lie was too big to come back in the end. ”

"Even if you know she's lying to you, what can you do with her? I don't know my identity, and then it's really hard to call the heavens and the earth. ”

"As I just said, what I am asked to do so far will not hurt me, and it will not directly benefit her. So even if I found out it was a farce in the end, I had nothing to lose. ”

"You wasted your time, wasted your youth, wasted your time guarding your mother, isn't it worthwhile?"

"Yes, but none of them compare to my dedication to the truth." She looked at him resolutely, "If I can't know who killed my mother, my life will be meaningless." This sentence has been her heart for many years, but there is a trace of hesitation when she says it today. She felt as if she had found something as meaningful as chasing the murderer, but she wasn't sure if it had something to do with the boy sitting in front of her.

"Chiba, as a friend, I really don't want to see you suffer so much. Yes, it is right and necessary to seek justice for my aunt. But you have to remember that you are an independent person and enjoy an independent life no matter what. If there is no afterlife, and there is only one chance to be a human being, do you plan to use this thing to bind yourself and stop chasing all the other beautiful things in life? ”

"I thought about it, but I couldn't. To put it mildly, if my mother had fallen to her death at that time, I probably wouldn't have let this hatred go so far. She had been lying in bed unconscious for seventeen years now, and I believe that the feeling in her heart was still there. What a painful torment it is, not to say, not to do, not to think. Seventeen years, not seventeen days, even those prisoners who can walk within the high walls are a kind of torment for them that is far away. So you said that there are still thousands of beautiful things waiting for me in life, can I hug them, can I welcome them? I can't do it, anything I can't share with my mom, I'd rather not get it myself. ”

Her eyes were wet when she said this, and when she used the word "sharing", she put aside her beautiful fantasies about Song Yingchen alone. She is still timid and inferior, but if this fantasy becomes true one day, she may dare to summon up the courage to meet it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think about it from your point of view." Song Yingchen clasped his hands, and his slender fingers closed like lotus petals, forming a fist, "But Chiba, that mysterious person should give you something credible, right?" ”

"Well, there it is." She said abruptly.

"What was given?"

"I was given the assumption that made me fall into despair and regret not being at the beginning."

"I don't understand."

"I'm sorry to keep your doubts growing in your mind. So I ask you, what do you want to know most right now? ”

Asked in turn, Song Yingchen got up and took two steps.

"Let me think about it......" he said, his hands on his cheeks, his eyebrows high, as if he were making a very difficult choice, "I still want to know what is going on with my mother's eyes." As for who she's hanging out with, I can slowly investigate. ”

"Okay, I know, do you want to hear it?"

"You know? Tell me! Song Yingchen was very excited when he heard it.

"I can tell you, but I have one condition."

"Don't say one, I'll say yes to ten!" He replied hurriedly, his eyes eager to erupt, "Say, what conditions?" ”

"Don't ask any more questions about the mystery man, including Aunt Lu."

He thought for a moment: "OK, deal!" Then he held his breath and waited intently for Chiba to solve his doubts.

However, Chiba turned the topic back like a TV jumper: "That's it, do you feel it?" ”

"What?" He was simply confused by the second monk.

"Unable to help oneself, desperate for oneself, this is the power of the mysterious man." Seeing that he was still out of the situation, Chiba explained again, "I don't know what happened to Aunt Lu's eyes, but you believed and accepted the conditions I proposed. Because you don't have any other way to know about it for the time being, you can only trust. In what you have just thought, you have assumed that if you do not accept the consequences, it will be the despair of being far from the truth and the regret of missing the opportunity. ”

Song Yingchen finally understood why she and her mother fell into the whirlpool of mysterious people, it was a kind of magic that could not be resisted at all, driving them to get closer, to take risks, to gamble.

He gradually calmed down and asked, "How did the mysterious man contact you?" ”

"A note, or a phone call."

"What do you think she has to do with the case? Could it be an eyewitness? Or a police officer in the public security system, an accomplice of the murderer? ”

"I just want her to be the one in the know."

"Understood, no wonder my mother suddenly rented out the house, it turned out that she was on a mission according to the arrangement of the mysterious person. I pretended to be my aunt in front of you to stabilize you, so that you would not be suspicious. ”

"It's understandable that Aunt Lu is being mysterious about you in this matter, and she doesn't want you to get involved, so please forgive her. As for that, I really don't have any advice to give, I'm afraid the best way is for you mother and son to sit down and talk openly. ”

"Talk? Hmph, that's easier said than done. Song Yingchen shook his head, "There is a layer of separation between the closest people, and whoever pokes it will hurt the other party." ”

"Because you love her, she loves you more, and you both think about each other and don't want to hurt each other."

"Hey, it's like a movie."

"I can only wait patiently, hoping that I can get my wish after staying in Lucheng for a year."

"Wait......" Song Yingchen suddenly remembered something, "Maybe I can inquire." ”

"You?"

"I think the mysterious person is likely to be a member of the public security system, who knows the truth but can't make it public."

"You go on."

"This society is inherently ugly, and there is no justice without money and power. I'll help you find someone, he's very decent, I think I might be able to help you. ”