On a silent night, thunder roared. Ran Mouri stood downstairs holding an umbrella. After a flash of lightning, she noticed strange red marks on the ground and walked toward them.
It looked like blood. With a heart full of anxiety, she climbed the stairs, praying silently over and over that it wasn't Shinichi's blood.
"Ran, be careful, he's that—that murderer!"
Shinichi Kudo's voice came from above. Ran Mouri looked up and finally saw a white-haired man with a bleeding stomach wound holding a gun.
"Since you've discovered me, you can only consider yourselves unlucky."
As the man spoke and prepared to draw his gun, a creaking sound came from behind. The railing snapped due to age, and the man lost his footing and fell backward directly.
The pain she expected never came. The man stared in disbelief at the girl who was desperately pulling at his clothes.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and grab my hand to pull yourself up!"
Seeing that she was about to lose her grip, her other hand grabbed the man's clothes. Ran Mouri stared at him in a daze.
"Shinichi..."
"Damn it, what a troublesome person."
Shinichi Kudo frowned, though it was unclear who he was talking about. At that moment, the man suddenly reacted, grabbed the railings on both sides with both hands, and leveraged himself up in one bound.
The man clutched the wound on his abdomen and looked at the two high school students before him with a complicated expression.
"Why... Why save me? Exactly why?"
He didn't understand why someone like him would be saved, or rather, why they would save him even knowing his identity—knowing full well that his hands were stained with blood.
"How could there be a reason?" Shinichi Kudo laughed self-deprecatingly, then looked at him with a firm gaze. "I've never wanted to know the reason why people kill, but when people save people, there is no time for logical thinking."
Ran Mouri stared at him in a daze as her consciousness gradually blurred. So saving people didn't need a reason after all? It seemed the fox gentleman's reason for saying she was kind-hearted from the start was because he knew her choice right now.
"I hope this brings you good luck, kind girl."
Shinichi Kudo carried the fainted, feverish girl on his back and prepared to leave, but the man behind him suddenly raised his gun.
"That gun doesn't have a silencer. The people chasing you nearby probably haven't left yet, and I'm in no position to catch you right now."
"But the crimes you've left behind are piling up in the underworld. Next time, I will definitely send you to prison. You'd better remember that well."
In the end, the man didn't fire. Shinichi Kudo carried his girl to a nearby small clinic. The classic Chinese style greeted them the moment they stepped inside with a rich aroma of herbal medicine—simple yet solemn.
"Is anyone here?"
The man at the front desk raised his eyes, his slender eyelashes casting shadows over his dark pupils. He stood up, walked over to them, reached out to touch the girl's burning forehead, and then smoothly felt her pulse.
"Put her on the bed inside. I'll go decoct the medicine, and you can have her take it in a moment."
The dark-eyed man, dressed in a bronze-colored Zhongshan suit, walked to the front desk, began gathering herbs, and placed them in a porcelain pot to brew. After a while, he brought out a bowl of fragrant medicine. Worried that there might be something wrong with it, Shinichi Kudo tasted a sip first, and after confirming it was safe, he fed it to Ran Mouri.
The other person thoughtfully brought over two blankets and then returned to the front desk to click the abacus.
"Sir, how much is the medicine she just drank?"
"Take the prescription to the back to pay. If you're in a hurry to leave, you can pick up two more doses to take back and soak in water for her to drink."
As the man spoke, he was writing something on a piece of paper, then added, seeming to recall something: "The young lady has a slight deficiency of coldness in her body, and her immunity isn't very good. Have her carry this with her and steep a little to drink daily."
When Ran Mouri woke up, she felt her body was indeed much better, but she didn't see the man who had written the prescription. There was only a woman collecting payments at the back.
"That's normal. Every day at this time, he takes the child from home out for a walk, and when he's having too much fun, he won't come back."
"So that's how it is. Sorry to bother you."
With that, the two paid and left. The man walked out from the back courtyard, revealing mismatched gray and red eyes. Along with the black wig, his false eyelashes were also removed.
"Are you not used to wearing them?"
Geng Jing hung the wig on a mannequin head. The black contact lenses were also placed on the table, and even his clothes were changed back to his original white garments.
"It feels a bit stuffy wearing them. This is best right now."
With that, he picked up the monocle placed in the small wooden box and put it back on. Wearing so many things made him feel a bit suffocated.
"Alright then."
Since Geng Jing was unwilling to wear these cumbersome things, she could only give up with a trace of resentment. Anyway, the promotional photos and everything else had already been taken care of.
"Clang."
Hearing the bell ring from the front hall, Geng Jing's motion of sitting down paused.
"A customer is here, you can go rest."
Hearing that, Geng Jing, who was just about to sit down and rest, had no choice but to resign to his fate and walk out. He watched as a white-haired man with an abdominal wound stumbled over, still carrying a gun.
"Do what you're supposed to do, don't do too—mh..."
A crisp sound came from her wrist, and immediately afterward she lost all feeling in her hand. That pistol was placed into the small wooden box and tossed aside.
"Be careful it doesn't go off. Everything here is for saving lives."
"You're a bit weak and need nourishment, and the wound on your abdomen needs to stop bleeding. Will you treat it yourself, or shall I have a lady come over to help you?"
With a snap, the wrist was popped back into place. The white-haired man watched the man before him vigilantly. The other's mixed black-and-white eyelashes lowered as he finally released his grip on her pulse.
"Just what kind of person are you?"
The "white-haired man" asked in a woman's voice, full of vigilance. Geng Jing looked at her with an indifferent expression, and only then did the other notice his unusual eyes—mismatched gray and red pupils that were truly rare.
"A medical student who's a stranger. I'm only responsible for treating illnesses; everything else is none of my business."
Geng Jing placed that box of ointment in front of her, turned around to gather herbs from the cabinet behind the front desk, using very ancient tools for measurement.
"There is a private room inside. Cotton swabs, gauze, and disinfectant are all in there. Apply the ointment to the wound yourself."
She knew this even without being told. The items in the private room were arranged very neatly, and there were even some candies in a small dish at the front desk.
Geng Jing sat nearby brewing medicine. A faint fragrance drifted faintly from the heavy porcelain pot while a small fan in his hand gently fanned the flames. The hollow, mirror-like heterochromatic pupils reflected the burning firelight.
Just as he was watching intently, Geng Jing picked up a white cloth, grabbed the handle of the porcelain pot, and carefully poured the medicine into a bowl. The orange medicinal soup looked like the lime juice children loved to drink.
"It's a bit hot. You can go lie down in the private room and watch TV, and drink it after it cools down a bit. If you find it cold, there's a hot water bottle and a small blanket in the drawer next to you."
As he spoke, Geng Jing walked to the door and hung up a "Closed" sign, then walked past her toward the back courtyard on his own. Inside the house, "Tom and Jerry" was playing.
"Yoyou."
Looking at the fluffy white ball of fur by his legs, Geng Jing picked up his little fox, the corners of his eyes curving with a gentle expression that was beyond words.