.

For a moment, old Duroc felt his heart, which was already as hard as a stone, twitch twice and tremble twice, and wanted to jump out of his throat and dance a ballroom dance on the table—a solo heartbeat.

Then he finally held back. He closed his mouth—hell, the way he looked surprised, surprised, and obviously poked at something with his mouth slightly open looked funny—and he took in as smoothly as he could, snorted through his nose, felt his lungs fill and then exhaled slowly, through his nose. He eventually calmed down.

Kari looked at Old Duroc with a smile, as if he was enjoying the reaction and performance of the old man in front of him. His face, which was hidden in his long twisted dark hair, was as pale as a corpse that had died of blood loss, as if there was no temperature, and a pair of slightly reddened eyes stared at the old detective, and then slowly stretched out his tongue and licked his lips. His lips looked so tender at this point that people couldn't help but want to bite on them.

"You look...... It's a little cold, sir. Kari said softly, closing her eyes and shaking her head in self-reproach, "By the way, of course, how can I be so rude?" It's bad enough to drag you out of bed so long before dawn. I'm such a bad boy, right? ”

He smiled embarrassedly and shyly, like a shy and ignorant big boy, and even faintly exuded a campus atmosphere that was real and indistinguishable. If you give him the right outfit and a backpack at this time, there is no problem in saying that he is a student who has just stepped into the college campus.

Although he didn't realize it when he first came in, it was now that old Duroc suddenly realized that the man in front of him, the man he had been very familiar with, he was simply a little too weird, and the mysterious strangeness had surrounded him and pulled him to a very, very far away mysterious place, a place where he didn't know where he was or how to get there. And I don't know why, the more I look at him, the more I feel an inexplicable ...... Familiar?

Not the familiarity of the person who once was, but the familiarity of another person who he had been in contact with before, who was completely different.

Karry seemed to notice the change in the old Duock, and even though it was only the old man's small, slightly slitted eyes, the depths of which were as subtle as the ripples in a puddle of water, Carrie's dark eyes took it into his own. He licked his lips again, and suddenly sat up straight, his hands on the long table.

Then he raised his voice, beckoned the people outside to bring them two cups of hot black tea. Precise jazz craftsmanship.

“……”

Looking at the amber liquid rising in front of him, smelling the scent of tea that kept running down his nostrils and into his nostrils, Old Duroc was silent, and then looked up at Carry. He saw that Kari didn't look at him, but sat there in a restrained position, carefully picking up the teacup with both hands, and drinking the tea in one sip as if he was afraid of being hot. Old Duroc's eyes narrowed even more, and the figure in front of him gradually overlapped with the man little by little.

"Now, am I more like him?" Kari said, in a very small voice, raising his eyes to peek at Old Duroc, and then smiled softly and bared his teeth, "That poor boy who you thought was a murderer and who held a grudge for so many years? ”

“…… What does this mean exactly? ”

Old Duroc finally couldn't help it anymore and asked in a low voice. Even with the cover of his beard, his face was still visibly ugly, very ugly.

"It's just a whim of nostalgia." Shrugged innocently, Carey tilted the corners of his mouth and rolled his eyes upward, what should have been a very cute action on his body was a goosebump-inducing horror and weirdness, "I remember, the last time we saw each other—what a coincidence, it was winter, remember?" It was snowing outside the window of the café — and that's how he behaved in front of me, and the same way he did when he drank tea — pitiful and cute, and one couldn't help but feel bullied—and the next day, he died. ”

"You met the night before he committed suicide?" The detective's instinct was aroused, and the elder Duroc raised his eyebrows, and his tone unconsciously became stern.

As Karry had just mentioned, it was a very serious situation. If they had known about this, perhaps the outcome would have been changed because of this.

"Meet...... See you. Kari muttered, nodding his head with a blank look, "It's indeed the last time we'll meet." But that's not the case for me, it's not like that...... I remember it clearly, when I heard his last voice, his face was indeed - floating in front of my eyes! ”

“……”

"You know the story between us, right, sir." Suddenly, Carry's eyes refocused, and he looked at Old Duroc with an expressionless face, "Me and him, and Layla's affairs." ”

"You like Layla." The elder Duroc replied, "Layla likes the younger him. After they get together, you become very depressed. ”

"I'm getting depressed...... Carey nodded, squinted, pursed his lips, and laughed, "That's exactly how I behaved, didn't I...... A stupid, poor young man who doesn't understand anything regards other people's condescending charity as a gift, and weeps in gratitude and gratitude, and doesn't even think about what he represents. What the hell is - so cute, so happy, right? Now that I think about it, it was really my happiest time, and sometimes I really want to go back to that time and retract into my warm, dark cocoon. But that's no longer possible, the wings that have been opened, it is impossible to retract them. ”

Kari crossed his hands, made the shape of a butterfly, and "flew" up and down in the air twice. And then — it was planted.

"I like Leila." "So I stood on the corner and watched her walk with him and watched her take his arm—I felt happy." "I'm glad because she looks happy, happy, and that's all I want." Of course I could snatch her away from him and snatch her to me, but I'm not sure if that would serve my purpose in the same way...... The same made her smile so happy on her face. So I didn't do anything. ”

“……”

"But as you know, I'm still close to Lyra, so I'm not going to avoid it, and I've been in contact with them a lot. Slowly, I became acquainted with the kid - it was really a shy, shy little guy, like a glass doll that shattered at the touch of a button, and people couldn't help but want to bully him. Kari made an excited, rubbing motion, then slowly stopped, "He's discovered my secret, he's discovered my feelings for Layla. ”

“……”

"It's funny to say, even Layla herself didn't realize it, but he found out. It was at that time that I realized that he was just like me, a delicate, a little stupid and a little silly, his surprised and panicked look made me feel funny when I think about it now, he apologized to me at a loss, and on the other hand, he clenched his fists and declared war, and finally even wanted to make everything directly to Leila, let her make the final decision herself, completely did not think that he didn't actually need to play any fair competition with me at all, he was already a winning player. Karey laughed and slapped the table twice, but he didn't have the slightest desire to laugh along, and he couldn't laugh at all, "You can't let him do that, you can't let him do that—it's okay, it's okay, it's easy to gag him, just a more expensive ice cream." ”

"It sounds like you've become good friends with him." Old Duroc answered dryly, his eyes unblinking.

"I like that kid," Kari exhaled, staring at old Duroc nonchalantly, "I didn't think of it either, but I like that kid." If I had to say, I'd be glad that Leila had chosen him, not me...... It wasn't until that day that I realized how ridiculously wrong I was. ”

"He's not what you think?"

Old Duroc asked word by word. He felt that it should be most normal for him to think so, but he felt that something was wrong. Sure enough, he saw Kari shake his head calmly.

"I was wrong," he said, "I was wrong...... It's not that I'm wrong about him, it's because I'm wrong about her. ”

“……”

"That day, he offered to ask me out at the same coffee shop we frequented...... Steaming black tea, precise jazz craftsmanship, and heavy snow outside the glass window. He told me that Leila had broken up with him. ”

“……”

"I don't know what's going on," Kari said with a smile, licking his lips and staring blankly, "He doesn't know what's going on either...... Everything was fine, everything was fine, they were going to plan a trip next month, he was planning to propose to her after graduation, everything was supposed to be fine...... But she left. She didn't leave him an explanation, didn't have any conversation with me or anyone else, and just broke up with him. ”

“……”

"He didn't cry when he said these to me, he didn't shed a single tear—I thought he would have spent the whole night—but he just sat there, tea in hand, and smiled at me, a sad, smiling child," Kari gestured forward, as if he had gone back to the night, and the man he spoke of was sitting in front of him, staring straight at the empty chair, "'Did I do something wrong'—he asked me, and I couldn't answer him...... I couldn't answer him anything. ”