After the living room quieted down, the topic of dating early was quietly passed over.

With unskilled precision, he smoothed the long orange hair in his hands. His fingertips unconsciously lifted a few strands of hair that were as smooth as fine silk. He spoke calmly, "It's getting late, Xiaoyou, do you want to go back to your room?"

Hasegawa Yu: “…Yeah.”

After Pingran carried the fish back to the room and confirmed that there was enough water in the humidifier, Jiang Gu Ling left quickly without staying long.

“Click—”

Hearing the sound of the bedroom door closing, Hasegawa Yu was lying on the bed holding a Garfield doll, staring blankly at the ceiling, his wide tail fin flapping against the end of the bed from time to time.

A few minutes later, he said with a serious expression, "Noah, there's something wrong with Brother Ling."

Noah's Ark has come up with some spirit, [for example?]

"I'll observe and tell you later."

Noah's Ark is relieved, [Good.]

The mermaid finally realized this!

The next day, Hasegawa Yu began to secretly observe the daily life of the blond-haired, dark-skinned human.

As usual, the blond human was in charge of breakfast.

Hasegawa Yu picked up the cherry tomatoes from the salad bowl with a fork and put them into his mouth, while quickly glancing at the blond human who was eating a sandwich.

He looked away, chewed, picked up a piece of carrot, and took another look.

The blond human paused as he opened his mouth.

Hasegawa Yuu withdrew his gaze again, chewed, picked up half an egg with a fork, and took another look.

Blond human, look here!

Hasegawa Yuu quickly withdrew his gaze, sat up straight, and concentrated on eating the vegetable salad in front of him.

Seeing this, Fōtani Ling, who was about to ask the fish what was wrong, hesitated and closed his mouth.

Today is Councillor Furuya's day off.

But it's not Bourbon.

After changing into a low-key black windbreaker and adjusting his baseball cap, Furuya Rei said, "I'll pass by the food court on my way back at noon. Is there anything Xiaoyou wants to eat?"

Hasegawa Yu, who hadn't eaten snacks for a while, stopped what he was doing and thought for a moment, "A box of octopus balls, original flavor."

"no problem."

After agreeing, Furuya Rei walked a few steps towards the sofa, bent down, and rescued his gloves, which had been ravaged beyond recognition, from the orange-haired mermaid. He said teasingly, "Xiaoyou, do you not want me to go out?"

“!”

Hasegawa Yu looked at the white gloves that Furiya Rei held in front of his eyes and shook lightly, and his confidence was a little lacking. "I didn't mean it."

There happened to be something at hand, and he didn't pay attention to what it was, so...

Seeing this, a smile flashed across the bottom of Furuya Ling's purple-gray eyes, "I will try to come back as soon as possible."

Hasegawa Yu: "That's not what I meant."

Furuya Rei put his gloves into his coat pocket as if nothing had happened and said, "I'm going out."

Hasegawa Yu puffed up his face and said, "...Zero brother, walk slowly and be careful on the road."

Something is wrong everywhere!

Near noon, Fūya Rei returned early as promised.

Hasegawa Yu used a bamboo skewer to pick up the steaming octopus balls in his hand and continued to secretly observe the daily life of the blond and dark-skinned human.

Blond human in an apron.

The blond human was tying the apron strings at the back of her waist.

The blond human went into the kitchen... couldn't quite see it.

The observation was interrupted, and Hasegawa Yu poked the octopus balls with a bamboo stick.

Noah's Ark, who had high hopes for the mermaid, took the opportunity to ask, "Did Xiaoyou observe anything?"

Hasegawa Yuu pulled out his phone and typed: "Zero-kun isn't much different from usual. Is it possible that I'm overthinking things, and that's why I see Zero-kun as being off?"

【……】

Noah's Ark offered gentle encouragement, "Good observation, Xiaoyou, keep it up! Let's finish the octopus balls while they're still hot."

Feeling that his previous thoughts were denied by the artificial intelligence, Hasegawa Yu snorted and obediently finished with the octopus dumplings.

Hmm, delicious.

At lunch time, Hasegawa Yu, who couldn't figure out what was going on, decided to concentrate on eating.

"Xiaoyou, could you pass me the spice jar over there?"

Upon hearing this, Hasegawa Yu habitually held the bottom of the seasoning jar, leaving space in the upper half for gripping, and then handed it over.

Fūya Rei stretched out his hand and picked it up casually as if he didn't notice this. His fingertips happened to touch Hasegawa Yu, as if he wanted to wrap it up.

The process of the two people passing the seasoning jar was extremely short. Before Hasegawa Yu could clearly feel the warmth transmitted from the other person's fingertips, the subtle touch disappeared.

He blinked, withdrew his hand, felt conflicted for a moment, then lowered his head and continued eating.

So am I thinking too much?

Hasegawa Yu stuffed the rice into his mouth. Considering that Brother Zero had a previous experience... but Brother Zero also promised him that he would not do such a thing again.

"Is the food not to Xiaoyou's liking?"

After taking the seasoning jar, Fūya Rei casually sprinkled it into the soup twice and put it aside, he asked.

"It's delicious." Hasegawa Yu responded subconsciously, and then confirmed it again at the end, "Really."

Fūya Ling raised an eyebrow and studied his expression without leaving any trace. After a moment, the corners of his mouth curved slightly, "That's good."

After lunch, the man and Yu each worked on their own computers. The former was processing documents, while the latter, wearing headphones, recorded and composed the musical inspiration that came to him in his daily life.

The afternoon tea dessert was a madeleine cake.

When the cake comes out of the oven, the whole living room and kitchen are filled with the aroma of chocolate and whiskey, tempting people to taste it.

Harrow sniffed the air.

Feeling like he'd been eating all day, Hasegawa Yuya sniffed and touched his stomach, "It seems like it's easy to gain weight here with Rei-san."

Fortunately, today was an indulgence day, otherwise he would have had a hard time refusing this cake.

"Really?" Fūya Ling put the cake on the coffee table, "But I feel like Xiaoyou's weight hasn't changed at all."

Hasegawa Yu, who had been being carried around, stared at him.

“I made some changes to this madeleine.”

Facing the mermaid's gaze, Furuya Rei naturally introduced the small cake on the coffee table, "I added dark chocolate and bourbon whiskey to it for flavoring, Xiaoyou, would you like to try it?"

Hasegawa Yui took a bite, and the rich chocolate flavor exploded in his mouth, accompanied by the aroma of bourbon that could not be ignored. The two were perfectly blended, giving him a very novel taste.

"I used xylitol instead of sugar in the cake, so it has lower calories." Fūya Ling added with a smile, "I made several pieces, and if Xiaoyou wants some, there are more."

Hasegawa Yumomo ate an extra piece of cake to show how delicious it was.

Thankful that today is a day of indulgence!

An ordinary day passed quickly, and Hasegawa Yu, who still hadn't observed anything from Furuya Rei, sat up with a start just as he was about to close his eyes and fall asleep.

Noah's Ark was startled, [Xiaoyou?]

"Noah, do you think Brother Ling's illness will relapse?"

Hasegawa Yu seriously considered this possibility. "Zero-brother was just as abnormal before he faked my death and imprisoned me as he is now. He was acting strangely."

[……] Noah's Ark took a look around Bourbon's phone. [Bourbon hadn't used the jammer recently, and there was no relevant content on his phone.]

[It's possible that Bourbon used more advanced methods that I couldn't find.]

After hearing the last sentence, Hasegawa Yu's brain started working, and he came to some conclusion. "I will probably be able to return to human form around midnight. Just in case, how about we go to Zero's room tomorrow to check it out?"

Check to see if there's anything wrong hiding!

Noah's Ark, who had only said that one sentence to make Bourbon appear more cunning, hesitated to speak.

"But I should trust Brother Ling." Hasegawa Yu lay back on the bed and closed his eyes again, "I won't go."

It's right next door, let's go while Bourbon is asleep.

There are some things that humans carry with them, and they are most vulnerable when they sleep.

Noah's Ark hoped that Bourbon's room contained something fishy, so that the mermaids would not be so critical of him. [Just look at him, nothing more.]

By the way, no one knows how the box of 18X unspeakable items that Bourbon took away from the villa last time was destroyed.

Anyway, Noah's Ark did not find any traces of Bourbon's destruction.

Hasegawa Yu refused, "It's not nice to break into someone else's room in the middle of the night."

Although it’s not good during the day.

Noah's Ark gave an explanation, his words clearly treating Bourbon as a black-hearted person. "Bourbon knows Xiaoyou is home during the day, so he will definitely hide anything he wants to hide. But at night, he may not be so sure."

Hasegawa Yu hesitated, "Really?"

Noah's Ark, whose code was feverish, gradually calmed down. "Forget it, maybe this is another trap set by Bourbon. It's better for us not to go."

"?"

Hasegawa Yu disagreed, "Zero-nii is a police officer, he wouldn't do this to us for no reason."

Over time, Noah's Ark, who had a prejudice against Bourbon, remained silent.

So Hasegawa Yuichi sat up and said, "Then let's go and take a look."

At least we need to change Noah's prejudice against Ling Ge!

At 4:30 in the morning, Hasegawa Yu, who had returned to his human form, tiptoed outside of Rei's bedroom door and whispered, "Sorry, Rei, for disturbing you."

He will definitely apologize and explain afterwards!

He listened carefully and confirmed that the person in the room was breathing steadily and was in a deep sleep, then he turned the doorknob little by little.

Not locked!

Hasegawa Yu held his breath and squeezed himself in through the crack in the door.

The bedroom curtains were drawn tightly, and the room was pitch black. Hasegawa Yu blinked and stood there to adjust to the darkness.

[There seem to be several suspicious boxes in the corner.]

In the darkness, Hasegawa Yuya saw the outline of the shadow of a box in the corner.

Other outlines resemble furniture and are less interesting than boxes.

The person on the bed turned over at this moment.

Hasegawa Yuu froze in place, his ears pricked up and he became alert.

He waited until there was no more noise from the bed before he slowly moved towards the corner.

Several boxes were stacked together. Hasegawa Yu carefully opened the top one and fumbled around, then gestured with sign language: it looked like a pile of paper documents.

The boxes were heavy, so he held his breath and moved one down.

The second box still contained documents.

Same with the third box.

Hasegawa Yu moved the boxes very smoothly, and thinking he didn't wake up the person on the bed, he gestured: I said Brother Zero is fine!

[Let's look at the last one here.] Noah's Ark didn't give up. [We haven't seen the rest of the bedroom yet.]

The last box was still a pile of documents.

Hasegawa Yu held his breath and put them back in place one by one.

[You can put things under the bed, too.] Noah's Ark gestured.

Hasegawa Yuu lay on the ground, reached his arm under the bed to grope, and touched another box.

Before he could drag the box out, there was movement on the bed again.

Hasegawa Yu didn't have time to think and quickly hid under the bed.

He saw a pair of feet stepping on the ground, and then the owner of the feet walked into the bathroom in the bedroom.

Hasegawa Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Noah's Ark alert, [Xiaoyou, do you feel that the size and specifications of this box are familiar? ]

According to his scan, it was the same size as the one in the villa that contained the 18X items!

“???”

Hasegawa Yu didn't expect that Noah had such a strong prejudice against Zero.

Aren’t the specifications of the boxes all the same? There are a lot of them on the market.

For some reason, Rei Furuya was still in the bathroom, so Hasegawa Yu lay down under the bed, opened the lid of the box a little, and reached in.

Unlike the several boxes in the corner outside, this one hidden deep under the bed finally contained something different.

Hasegawa Yu tried hard to describe to Noah what he touched: a long cylinder with granular bumps on it, connected to a wire and something like a remote control.

【!!! 】

Before Noah's Ark could say anything, the bathroom door was opened.

Due to the angle of the posture, Hasegawa Yu could only vaguely see the feet taking a few steps towards the bedroom door.

"Hello, why are you here?"

What? Haro has also entered the room? Hasegawa Yuu couldn't help but get nervous.

However, the more nervous he became, the more things happened. Before he could prepare himself mentally, Haro suddenly rushed under the bed.

The little white Shiba Inu with a confused face smelled a familiar scent, first wagged its tail, and then woofed as if in confusion.

Hasegawa Yu couldn't see the puppy's expression clearly and couldn't stop it in time, so he had to quickly pull his hand out of the box, but he didn't intend to hook the things out of the box.

Under the action of inertia, the thing that was hooked out was thrown out from under the bed, and a "buzzing" sound of vibration was heard somewhere it hit.

The light that lit up when the little white Shiba Inu broke into the bed suddenly turned off after a "buzzing" sound.

“…”×2

[I told you this was Bourbon's plan!] Noah's Ark was excited when he realized what the mermaid had touched.

The silence of the bedroom came quietly, just as he left quietly.

"Woof!"

Wake up in the middle of the night by his blond master, Harry wagged his tail and said cheerfully, "Woof!"