stonecrandall Chapter 28 "Common Sense"
Chapter 28 "Common Sense"
Azure tried hard to recall Hugo's demeanor when he presented his reasoning, desperately suppressing her nervousness and feigning a calm chuckle.
"Here is my judgment as a detective—Madam, you can seal away your memories of the past, but you cannot seal away a child's longing for his mother."
The mother, her tears still wet on her face, only showed a confused expression; she did not understand what Bilan meant at this moment.
“Your son often stands by the window, right? That’s because he hopes that one day he can wear a glider and fly in the air, just like his mother.”
Azure made a baseless inference, thinking it would comfort the woman in front of her.
However, the person being comforted immediately retorted: "That's impossible. Neither I nor my partner have ever mentioned to the children that I used to be an air combat trainer."
"But your trophies and gliders must be somewhere in your home. Your child must have seen them by chance, which further fueled his desire to fly."
In truth, Azure was extremely flustered at this moment, fearing that the other party would further investigate the rationality of her reasoning. In her previous life, she had never found that speaking could become so difficult.
"Judging from your inability to stop your child's dangerous behavior in time, you must have other jobs besides taking care of the child. Think about it, children who have to stay at home must be very lacking in entertainment, so it's actually quite normal for them to start exploring and treasure hunting at home."
The woman nodded with some doubt: "There are indeed times when neither my husband nor I are home... Could it be that he saw my old keepsakes during those times?"
"That's exactly right!"
People's thoughts gradually take shape through language, and as communication continues, what was originally vague gradually becomes clear.
After her brain raced, the girl painstakingly crafted sentence after sentence—
"Think about it carefully: when you accidentally find your old items, are they really still in the same place? As far as I know, things that are deliberately hidden don't reappear so easily—of course, these are just my guesses."
The mother fell into deep thought: "It seems...it really is..."
Seeing that her target was gradually being persuaded, Azure seized the opportunity to quickly offer her suggestion—
"Please take my advice: if you want to completely improve your child's bad habits, it will be more effective to let this habit be expressed in a positive way than to rigidly prohibit it or use intimidation to induce it."
The mother understood what Azure meant and shifted her attention to the suggestion: "You mean you want me to take the child to experience aerial combat?"
“Why not?” Azure breathed a sigh of relief. She remembered the woman mentioning that she had browsed online for parachutes that children could use, so she continued—
"It's better to guide than to block. When children no longer have an unknown yearning for the sky, they will naturally stop going to the windowsill to make trouble. What's more, you can take this opportunity to relive those passionate years of soaring through the sky."
Hearing Azure's advice, the woman was stunned for a moment, then looked at the ward in the distance, and shook her head with a wry smile: "I will no longer engage in aerial combat, but you are the savior of Warrior Eagle, so I will take this suggestion seriously."
Just then, a little boy's head timidly peeked out from the doorway of the ward in the distance. Had he noticed them? Bilan breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the time to say goodbye was approaching.
The mother rubbed her cheeks, wiped away the tears, and regained her previous strong expression.
"Detective, thank you so much this time. It's our family's good fortune to have your assistance and advice. If you ever need any help and there's anything I can do to assist you, please be sure to contact me." With that, the mother handed over her business card with both hands.
Bilan politely accepted the business card, which listed the woman's name, phone number, and job title. It turned out that the former air combat champion in front of her was a manager of an air transport company, which was probably why the little boy had been neglected.
"I hope the Warrior Eagle will be fully recovered by then." Azure smiled as she bid farewell to the mother.
.
The girl breathed a sigh of relief as she left the hospital. Although the incident was a distressing tragedy, for some reason, talking with the person involved made her feel much better. Being called "Miss Detective" for the first time in her life made her feel like she was floating on air.
Just then, Azure, who was passing by the back door of the hospital, saw a real detective wearing a shabby white suit jacket sneaking into the hospital. It was Hugo.
Hugo pulled out a suspicious white coat from somewhere, changed out of his usual white suit jacket, and then, abandoning his previous lack of confidence, strode confidently into the back door of the hospital. Surprisingly, no one stopped him along the way.
What was the detective doing at the hospital?
The naive girl, bewitched, followed the detective through the corridor and down the spiral staircase.
Then, she saw a crying mask floating in the air in the distance, eagerly doing somersaults in front of Hugo. Then, perhaps due to Hugo's bad luck, this ghost-type Pokémon, which could normally pass freely through walls, crashed solidly into an iron gate with a crisp "bang," and the red tearful eyes on the ghost face became even more obvious.
Azure watched as the person and the ghost she was following pushed open the iron door and entered a room.
The curious girl was naturally not going to back down now. The fact that she didn't have any Pokémon with her made Azure a little uneasy, but remembering that she wasn't following just anyone, but the trustworthy detective Hugo, Azure mustered her courage. After Hugo entered, she quietly pushed open the iron gate and slipped into the room.
She was completely unaware that the iron gate she passed through had a sign indicating the function of the room.
The morgue is a place where bodies are kept.
.
Four hours later...
Douzi, who stayed behind at Yuxi Residence, saw Bilan and Hugo, who had gone out that morning.
Hugo, as always, wore a wrinkled, shabby white suit and had a nonchalant expression. However, Little Blue looked rather strange; her face was deathly pale, and her steps were unsteady.
Before Touko could ask, the detective seemed to have read Touko's mind and took the initiative to explain, "I happened to run into Bilan at the hospital today. She said she wanted to work as a detective assistant at this agency, so I introduced her to some common knowledge about the detective industry."
Looking at Sister Xiaolan, Douzi couldn't help but ask, "What kind of common sense?"
"Various causes of death and their resulting symptoms, and if the time of death is determined based on changes in the body after death, and so on," Hugo replied without hesitation.
Azure, still standing at the door, seemed to have been reminded of some unseen memory, and her face turned even paler.
"Oh...I see. That's definitely knowledge a detective needs." Touko's smile was a little stiff. "Let's discuss what to have for lunch."
"In short, avoid eating meat that is bloody or preparing thick soups. It's best to eat some light, everyday foods."
"How are the noodles?" Douzi asked the detective in a low voice.
“No, that would be reminiscent of the intestines,” Hugo said cautiously, lowering his voice and shaking his head.
"rice?"
"No, if I see any white, sticky bits, I'll definitely throw up today's Azure."
"A sandwich?" Douzi, racking his brains, gestured a triangle with his hand.
The detective snapped his fingers excitedly and exclaimed, "That's it! We've decided on sandwiches for lunch!"
Perhaps provoked by Hugo's loud shouting, Azure, who was swaying at the door, covered her mouth again and began to gag uncomfortably.
Upon seeing this, Hugo hurriedly went inside, rummaged through a drawer and pulled out an opaque paper bag, then ran back to the door like the wind and shoved it into the hands of the new detective's assistant.
The girl finally couldn't hold it in any longer and turned her back to vomit into the paper bag.