roccoschili Chapter 1338 As long as you're easy to fool
Chapter 1338 As long as you're easy to fool
Chapter 1338 As long as they're easy to fool
Vermouth's teaching methods were by no means gentle.
If she showed the slightest dissatisfaction, she would kick him before even speaking to correct him, as if using pain to make Curaçao remember his mistake.
For someone with no prior experience, it is extremely difficult to perfectly imitate another person's gait in a short period of time. Fortunately, Curaçao is a highly trained assassin with strong body control. After half an hour of instruction, she was able to imitate Vermouth's walk about 60-70% accurately.
"Alright, all that's left is practice, repetition until it gets close to what you're looking for." Sitting back on the sofa, watching Curaçao pace back and forth in front of her a few times, Vermouth stubbed out her cigarette in a cup on the coffee table. "I believe the one thing I have absolutely no doubt about is your memory. Once you can imitate it to the point that even Kumail can't find a mistake, come back to me."
Curaçao stopped, nodded, and said nothing.
Regardless of Vermouth's motives, she was at least teaching legitimately, which is commendable.
"Where should I go to find your boss?"
"The courtyard, I suppose. He usually stays there when he comes here."
Having received a definite answer from Curaçao, and seeing her standing motionless in the room with her head down, Vermouth turned and left.
To cooperate with Kumail's plan, she unusually refrained from any disguise, which meant it wasn't appropriate for her to leave through the main entrance; Kumail still needed to drive her somewhere else.
After passing through the stairs and the cramped, dusty corridor, Vermouth found the exit she had been to before and stepped into the courtyard again through the open door.
This courtyard, which cannot be seen from the outside, is more exquisite than the last time I saw it. At this moment, two people are already sitting at the tea table in the middle.
Upon seeing the young man sitting opposite Kumail, Vermouth immediately raised her eyebrows.
She observed Kumail's expression for a while, and seeing that he was just calmly pouring coffee into his cup and did not seem to mind her approaching, she finally took a step and walked to the table to sit down.
"We meet again, honey." Vermouth pushed the empty teacup she had left for her, gesturing for Kumail to refill it. "You look much better than last time. Are you able to go out for a walk now?"
Sitting opposite Kumail was, of course, Tang Zezhao, whom she had only briefly met once before.
He was still wearing that simple hospital gown, and the exposed skin looked a little better than before. It could also be that the well-healed scars were starting to blend into his skin tone, making the wounds all over his body appear less gruesome.
He sat in that seemingly high-performance electric wheelchair, but his feet and neck were firmly bound by shackles to the armrests and wheel hubs, while the wheelchair itself was tied with another rope. It was clear that his range of motion was severely restricted.
However, considering his strange underground room, this is much better than being locked up inside.
Considering that the room was almost like a clean operating room, the fact that the person was able to leave there indicates that their recovery is going quite well.
Tang Zezhao rolled his eyes, looking at her with an unfamiliar, inquisitive gaze. When he saw her blonde hair and face, he nodded as if he suddenly realized something.
"It's you." He said, looking at the person across the table, his voice flat and his tone cold.
"You didn't kill her? That's strange."
"Do you think I'm the kind of person who would kill anyone who discovers my secret?" Kumail, sitting opposite him, seemed amused by his words, a slight smile playing on his lips. He put down the coffee pot and slowly added sugar and milk to his cup. "How should I answer you, thank you for the compliment?"
Vermouth knew they were referring to the time she sneaked in unannounced and found the basement.
Kumail was indeed unusually emotional at the time, and if it weren't for the location, he might have pulled the trigger recklessly under pressure.
"You're recovering surprisingly quickly." Vermouth, who knew all too well how serious Tang Zezhao's condition was, smiled kindly. "Your little sister's" abilities are truly astonishing. It wouldn't be surprising if you were able to stand up again someday."
However, this does explain why Kumail was so protective of Shirley.
After leaving the dangerous field of pharmaceutical development, Shirley seemed to prove with her abilities how genuine her degree was.
Considering that she was able to develop dangerous pills that would occasionally bring Coolguy back to life in an environment with a severe lack of samples, Sherry truly lived up to her codename and the organization's expectations.
However, the more this happened, the stronger Vermouth's murderous intent, which had never completely dissipated, became.
If she were allowed to live and continue researching this project, regardless of whether she returned to the organization, it would be something Vermouth could not tolerate.
Such heinous drug research should disappear from this world, and those who stand indifferently outside one-way glass, recording the suffering of their fellow human beings with precise numbers and tables, should also disappear.
"That's probably unlikely." Kumail picked out sugar cubes one by one from the small metal bucket on the table, tossed them into his coffee cup, and scoffed. "He not only has a damaged knee, but his ligaments and muscles are almost gone, and he's truly paralyzed. Want to stand up again? Unless time can be reversed."
Vermouth slipped the cup she was placing on the plate and it hit the porcelain plate hard with a crisp sound.
Like an unbearable cry, it interrupted Kumail's lighthearted, joking tone.
"—You wouldn't be trying to say—" Vermouth turned her gaze to the side.
"I have no intention of supporting Sherry's continued development of APTX." Kumail raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Don't be nervous, accomplice. She's just researching the antidote, and judging from the little detective's demeanor, it's quite effective, isn't it? He's in a good mood. You'd better not cause any trouble for your little one lately."
Without Sherry, who was facing the same predicament, there would be no other scientist in the world who could possibly help Conan develop an antidote.
For Vermouth, this was far more convincing than treating Tang Zezhao or anything like that.
So she simply hummed softly, picked up her teacup again, and offered no further objections.
APTX4869 is so rare that Sherry and Coolguy are the only remaining samples in the world. Given that those who took it in the past all died, no one knows what will happen to them.
Perhaps they were just lucky to survive the poison, stealing a decade or more of their lives. Or perhaps the growth-inhibiting effects of the drug will continue to work, in which case Conan might never grow up again.
Unwilling to see her beloved child suffer such hardship, Vermouth reluctantly postponed Sherry's death a little.
Okay, once Tang Zezhao no longer needs her treatment, and once Coolguy returns to his own life—in that case, she should return to her original state, and die quietly without alerting the organization—
In her silence, four sugar cubes fell into the coffee one after another, quickly dissolving in the warm coffee.
Kumail picked up his coffee and brought it to his lips, then seemed to remember something, smiling as he looked at Tang Zezhao, who was staring at the table without saying a word.
"Why aren't you drinking? Is it not to your taste? You've come out for some fresh air, don't be such a spoilsport, Tang Ze."
Upon hearing this, Vermouth's gaze naturally fell on the cup in front of Tang Zezhao.
Unlike the coffee they were drinking, that cup contained only clear water.
Considering that besides the coffee pot, the only other container on the table containing liquid is a beaker, which is probably distilled water.
Realizing the true tastes of these two people, and understanding why Kumail had suddenly started drinking a latte with excessive sugar: "————"
Even in such a small place, Kumail deliberately tries to annoy people. Is he trying to make Tang Zezhao uncomfortable?
Tang Zezhao raised his scarred eyelids, stared at Kumail who was sipping his coffee, took a deep breath, and finally reached out to grab the cup.
His severely deformed hand peeked out from the sleeve of his hospital gown, his fingers moving with considerable difficulty; it was clear that performing such delicate movements as grasping was no easy feat.
But he still slowly hooked the handle of the teacup with one hand, steadily picked up the teacup, and began to drink the water.
Realizing this was also a form of retaliation, like a response to Kumail's earlier taunts, Vermouth...
What kind of relationship is this? Is it about disgusting each other to improve one's own mood?
Inside the monitoring room, the members of the Phantom Thieves who were watching were laughing again.
To some extent, Vermouth's judgment was actually correct, only the way she was disgusting was slightly different.
For example, making Hoshikawa Teru, who has no sweet tooth, drink deadly coffee, or making Karasawa drink frighteningly weak distilled water.
"Tang Ze really went to great lengths to fool Vermouth," Miyano Akemi shook her head helplessly. "Will this really increase Vermouth's trust?"
"Since Tang Ze's previous plans against her were effective, then it must be possible." Morofushi Hiromitsu pointed to the smile that had returned to Vermouth's lips. "I guess this makes it feel more realistic."
In this narrative, the relationship between Kumail and Tang Zezhao cannot be very close, but it also cannot be too distant. The damage that has already occurred is like a sin that has long been committed and cannot be erased.
If we had to pinpoint what this script, as set by Tang Ze, gave Vermouth, it would probably be emotional value.
Vermouth's position within the organization is quite unique, and the presence of Conan and Ran Mouri further alienates her from the organization.
In this state, she was always isolated and helpless. It was impossible for her to truly turn to the normal world, but it was also impossible for her to completely become a heartless tool, faithfully carrying out the organization's orders.
Coupled with her mental state tormented by drugs and the various hardships she encountered in the organization's experiments, her inner disorder had long since manifested itself, and she had begun to openly and secretly defy the organization.
The process of Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri saving her could not be replicated, and Kumail's deeply entangled identity with the organization could not make her naively believe that the children who came out of the organization would be kind angels.
So Tang Ze took a different approach, creating a script that no one could understand, but successfully made Kumail's image in Vermouth's eyes quite similar to hers in a logical way.
Vermouth, who had been lonely and suffering for so long, saw the possibility of being recognized in him and began to communicate with him.
More importantly, she accepted Kumail's help and also provided Kumail with a lot of help in return; their interests were now intertwined.
Once this is confirmed, even if she discovers it's a lie in the future, the sunk costs have already been incurred, and it will be impossible to recover the effort and trust she has invested. She can only continue down this path to the bitter end.
In the courtyard, Tang Ze slowly placed the tasteless distilled water back on the table, then glanced at Hoshikawa Teru across from him.
While there may be room for improvement in other aspects of Hoshikawa Teru's acting, when it comes to needing him to be sarcastic or eccentric, he doesn't need any acting coaching at all.
Hoshikawa Teru, whose toes were digging into the soles of his shoes, immediately raised his hand in a sarcastic tone, "Not bad at all."
Should we give you a round of applause?
"I can't compete with you. Don't you get tired of drinking such sweet stuff every day?"
"It's a minor issue. Your friends still haven't noticed that you've changed. It seems that the friends you care about don't care about you much either."
"That's hard to say. They might have already seen through your clumsy acting, but simply don't want to make any rash moves. You're just pretending to be a detective, but you don't have a detective's mind. Have you been fooling yourself for so long?"
"That's good. Keep that hope in your heart; it'll give you more motivation to live. Oh, I almost forgot, your sister now depends on me to survive too. It's a real shame she won't have that chance anymore—"
Vermouth finished her coffee while the two were arguing, and now she truly felt much more energized.
Even if the children's playful roughhousing sounds a bit too harsh, it's probably better not to interfere.
She stood up quietly, retraced her steps back to the entrance of the courtyard, looked at Curaçao standing there waiting, and dangled a bunch of keys between her fingers.
"You're surprisingly good at catering to your boss's wishes. No wonder Rum relies on you so much."
As she spoke of the past with a hint of disdain, Curaçao nodded indifferently without blinking.
Seeing that she really didn't react to her words, Vermouth seemed to finally get bored. "Your boss doesn't have time to follow proper gentlemanly etiquette right now. I'll have to trouble you to take me home."
Curaçao took the keys without saying much, and silently led the way.
With Noah in charge, she was naturally able to drive away smoothly with Vermouth in tow.
Only after the two of them had completely entered the underground parking garage did the two people in the courtyard finally drop their pretense.
Feeling utterly exhausted, Hoshikawa Teru poured himself another cup of black coffee without a word, trying to dilute the sweetness in his mouth.
"This cup is smaller than the one in the coffee shop, and it contains four sugar cubes. I feel like I've been hit with sugar." After struggling to catch his breath, he couldn't help but complain, "Does this have to happen every week? Is it absolutely necessary to act like this?"
Just thinking about Vermouth and the several more classes he'd have to teach, and how he might be dragged over by Tang Ze to do this every week, made Hoshikawa Teru feel like his future was bleak.
"If Sophia learns quickly, maybe she can do it less often." Tang Ze shrugged, casually pulling off the loose metal ring around his neck. "Cheer up, at least the effect is still significant."
As Tang Ze watched the tarot cards appear before him with a shattering sound, his smile became much more genuine this time.
She's easy to fool, she'll teach you anything you say she'll teach you, and she'll believe you if you say she will. Vermouth is such an honest person!
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