Jiangxia: "..."
He hesitated for a moment, then bit the bullet and reached across the invisible boundary to poke at the ghost baby.
…A searing pain struck instantly, like jabbing his fingertips into a bed of needles.
Jiangxia's eye twitched, and he yanked his hand back.
…That hurt way more than expected.
Plan A: Approach directly, grab it, and rebuild it slowly at home. This plan gets an "X" now.
"..." Good thing I left Yoko Kinoshita my contact info. That was the right move…
Yoko Kinoshita was startled too.
She couldn't see the ghost, so from her perspective, Jiangxia's sudden movement looked... kinda rude.
After all, who tries to shake hands with someone's wrist?
But as an actress with a keen eye for facial expressions, she noticed Jiangxia's wince as he withdrew his hand—like he hadn't liked it either.
"..." Yoko Kinoshita had been reading a lot of artsy scripts lately.
For example: A bad boy, trying to look cool, purposely harasses a well-bred idol, but deep down he hates that kind of behavior, so he pulls back in disgust…
In short, she decided Jiangxia was a troubled youth, teetering on the edge of corruption.
As Jiangxia turned to leave, Yoko Kinoshita didn't have time to overanalyze it. She just reached out and pulled him back.
She had to really stretch to grab him.
Jiangxia got turned around by her tug—just in time for the ghost baby, who hadn't crawled far, to slap itself onto the back of his hand.
…it felt like a pot of boiling water got dumped on him. His ears rang from the pain, but he managed not to show it.
Thankfully, the ghost baby didn't like this kind of contact either. It crawled off cursing in ghost language.
The pain faded.
Yoko Kinoshita, still oblivious to all of this, grabbed a handful of colorful crystal candies from the armrest and dropped them into Jiangxia's hand.
Then she patted him on the arm, as if comforting a sulking kid, and said warmly, "Go on. Don't force yourself to act like a bad boy—being a detective is a good job. You'll do great."
Jiangxia: "…?"
He stared blankly, completely lost as to why Miss Yoko was giving him a heartfelt motivational speech.
In the end, he just pretended nothing happened, pocketed the candy, left the "evidence" CD, and walked away.
…
Once Jiangxia was gone, the manager got back in the car, locked the door, and turned to look at Yoko Kinoshita in the backseat.
Yoko smiled calmly and handed over the CD: "He just made up some excuse to hitch a ride—this CD is the study material he burned himself."
The manager's forehead twitched, blood pressure spiked, and she nearly crushed the disc in her hand.
But… it was an excuse.
Which meant—Yoko hadn't actually had an abortion, right?
The manager exhaled with relief.
As long as there was no real blackmail material, it was fine.
She started the car, pulling away, while complaining about Jiangxia: "That kid really likes to cause trouble for others. Now even the punks he picked a fight with will involve us."
"People have a strong will to survive," Yoko said peacefully from the back seat. "Like how some say—when you're kidnapped, smash stuff around you, so passersby who suffer losses won't just stand by. Hurting innocent people's interests just to survive… it's hard to blame them."
"…You've only known him for a few minutes and you're already defending him?" the manager muttered, temple throbbing again.
Yoko listened carefully, and she thought she vaguely heard the manager mutter "vixen."
She couldn't help but laugh softly, stopped talking, and picked up the half-read novel beside her.
It had been given to her by some old director: Youth That Never Comes Back, one of those pretentious literary coming-of-age novels full of inspirational soup.
At first, she thought it was dumb.
But after reading enough, she started thinking maybe it's a masterpiece…
At that moment, Yoko Kinoshita mused to herself: Seventeen or eighteen years old really is the age to be bold and fearless, to do anything—just once in a lifetime.
If Jiangxia really turned his life around one day… she could be a witness to that miracle.
…
Meanwhile—
After getting off the van, Jiangxia ducked into an alley.
Not long after, he heard footsteps behind him—someone was following.
Jiangxia walked to a hidden corner and turned around.
It was that golden retriever-haired guy who'd "chased" him earlier.
He approached with dramatic swagger and a baseball bat in hand—then threw his arms around Jiangxia like an old buddy: "So, boss. Did you get the autograph?"
—As a top idol, Yoko Kinoshita appealed to men and women, young and old. Especially popular among the delinquent youth demographic.
So a few days ago, when Jiangxia suggested, "Let's make up a reason to ask Miss Yoko for an autograph," it was instantly approved.
A whole group of them followed his instructions and pretended to be thugs chasing him down.
They didn't really understand how "pretend to chase boss" translated into "get autograph from Miss Yoko," but hey—if the boss said it, it must be right.
Sure enough, not long after, they saw Jiangxia getting into Yoko Kinoshita's car.
…As expected of the boss!
Golden Retriever grinned, not even waiting for Jiangxia to speak before whispering excitedly: "I passed by and peeked through the window crack, haha, Miss Yoko is even prettier than her posters—huh?"
In the middle of his gushing, he glanced down—and saw the bruised cyan blotch on the back of Jiangxia's hand. He froze.
Then a strange light of admiration flickered in his eyes: "…Miss Yoko hit you? With her own hands?"
Jiangxia: "…"
Two seconds later, under Jiangxia's flat stare, Golden Retriever snapped out of it and cleared his throat guiltily: "I mean—that's too much! No autograph, and even hitting people?! Outrageous!"
The other "paparazzi-hired thugs" had been tailing Yoko's car from afar. Now that Jiangxia was back, they regrouped.
Hearing Golden Retriever's voice, they rushed over, hyped and ready.
—The boss got beat up by two beauties in a van?
Can this be tolerated?
No!
They must make them also—
Cough.
No, wait.
They must seek justice for the boss!
Jiangxia looked at their starry-eyed expressions and sensed something was very wrong with these little brothers.
He sighed wearily: "No one hit me. This happened a few days ago." He raised his hand, showing the ghost-inflicted bruise. "Does this even look fresh?"
He really didn't want tomorrow's headlines to be 'Shocking! Delinquent Teens Swarm Entertainment Agency in Revenge Plot!'
The underlings deflated, disappointed: "Oh… I see."
Not like they'd been paying attention to his hands earlier anyway.
…Crisis averted.
The little brothers, satisfied the drama was over, eagerly returned to the more important topic: "Miss Yoko is sooo cute!...Boss, what excuse did you use to get in the car?" They wanted to learn too.
Jiangxia shrugged: "I handed her a copy of her zero-score report card and threatened to leak it to expose her... uh, lack of brain cells. So she pulled me into the car and told me to behave."
As he spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the candy Yoko had given him: "She was so cute in person I forgot to get her autograph. She gave me this before I left—make do with candy."
"Woooah!" The delinquents lit up. Candy from an idol?! That was worth more than a signature.
A handful of candy vanished in seconds.
Only one piece remained in Jiangxia's pocket.
But he didn't plan to eat it.
This candy had Yoko Kinoshita's scent. He planned to keep it as a souvenir—and maybe use it to bribe that ghost baby later. Kind of like buying a toy before bringing home a cat.
…
Originally, Jiangxia had come to pick up the ghost baby.
But based on the earlier contact, this ghost baby was incredibly stubborn—no easy pickup.
Still, it wasn't a total loss.
—When he touched it, Jiangxia sensed the ghost baby's obsession: it wanted its birth parents to live together in harmony.
…Probably watched too many sweet, cheesy scripts hanging around Yoko Kinoshita.
Jiangxia didn't know Yoko's ex-boyfriend, but he wasn't about to hand over that ghost to some guy just for a family reunion.
To pick up this ghost, he'd have to weaken its obsession.
Besides helping a ghost fulfill its wish, there was another method: let it get smacked around by reality until it gives up.
Thinking along those lines, Jiangxia activated his fake "precognition" ability and tried to recall the plot. Soon, he had a rough plan.
…but it needed some prep.
…
The next morning, while washing up in front of the mirror, Jiangxia saw that the back of his hand was still an angry blue-green. Fortunately, it wasn't swollen.
This little ghost couldn't touch his spirit, but it sure could mess with his body. Mainly because this body had never been in direct contact with a ghost before—it had a bit of a ghost allergy.
Still, this was probably the worst damage a ghost could do to him.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to poke it yesterday.
He shook his wrist a couple times. No pain, no problem. He packed his bag and headed to school.
…
Jiangxia usually only showed up for exams. The rest of the time, he called in sick.
But thanks to his excellent memory and comprehension, his grades were solid.
Although Kudo Shinichi was also in his class, this version differed slightly from the anime. Jiangxia wasn't sure if he'd eventually become Conan, or if time would stretch like it does in the Detective Conan universe...
So the entrance exam was part of his life plan.
It's not like he had to study hard—one glance and he remembered everything.
If time wasn't stretchy, then sneaking into a research lab through a top university would be much better than slugging it out as a peripheral member of some shady organization.
Glossary:
Ghost baby / ghost child: A spirit of a deceased child that Jiangxia can see and interact with.
Precognition ability (fake): Jiangxia's faux power to predict or recall plot events; a meta-joke about being in a fanfiction universe.