Lyra star, evening.
Qiao Mo rubbed the smartphone on his finger and pushed open the door of the meeting room again, "Help me find Zhao Zemu again."
After a whole day, the supervisors have become familiar with the eldest young master, and they are not surprised to hear this. They admired the young master's perseverance in their hearts. Although they pouted and shook their heads, they still led Zhao Zemu into the meeting room.
If Yan Suizhi or Gu Yan were here, they would be surprised by Zhao Zemu's change.
Zhao Zemu, who was on the beach of Yaba Island, occasionally looked at the coast in a trance, but most of the time he was laughing.
But now, his complexion is gray and haggard, his chin is full of cyan stubble, his hair has not been taken care of for a while, his sideburns are not over the tips of his ears, his bangs are drooping down, and his eyes are hidden in the shadows cast by the bangs.
For a whole day, every time Qiao saw him, he had the urge to find a pair of scissors to cut all his bangs. He always felt that the tip of his hair could pierce into Zhao Zemu's eyes.
Disciplinary took people to him, said hello to Joe, and left the meeting room, closing the door for them.
As soon as the others left, the entire meeting room became quiet.
Zhao Zemu, as always, looked out the window without saying a word. don't know if it's in a trance or just refusing to cooperate.
In the face of his cold treatment before, Qiao will always be hard and soft, and he will always talk hard to the limit of a talkative, trying to persuade him with a three-inch tongue, but in the end he will always be blocked by his appearance. Not getting angry, then slammed out the door.
But this time was different, this time Joe hadn't spoken since he entered the door.
He leaned back in the chair, fiddled with his two fingers with his eyes down, and was silent for a long time.
A bird hula flew by outside the window, Zhao Zemu blinked his eyes gently, and for a moment, he almost had an illusion that Qiao seemed to have given up.
Zhao Zemu's gaze fell out of the window for a long time, but he finally took it back and looked at Qiao instead.
"See what I'm doing?" Joe stopped fiddling with his fingers and looked up at him.
"...You don't seem to be going to ask me any more questions." Apart from the greetings and greetings we just met in the morning, this was the first sentence Zhao Zemu said.
After staying in the detention center for a long time, his voice became hoarse, and it sounded like he was full of tiredness and worries.
Joe thought for a while, pouted and nodded, "Almost, it doesn't help after grinding you all day. You know me, the most annoying thing for me is to go over and over again, it's boring, really."
He spread out his hands and compared to Zhao Zemu, "I figured it out just now, if you really don't want to talk about it, even if I grind your mouth open, you may come up with a bunch of lies. Strongly twisted melons are not sweet, I still understand that."
Zhao Zemu asked hesitantly, "Then why are you still here?"
Joe glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "I have a shuttle back to Decama at 9 o'clock at night, you know, I don't feel comfortable leaving Ke Jin elsewhere for too long."
"Ok, I know."
Qiao added, "I walked out of the interview room before I entered the detention center in the morning, and I persuaded you on and off for nearly 8 hours. I was very tired, and I was not short of breath. But that was in my capacity as a stakeholder in the case. Now There are still more than two hours before I leave for the port. When I return to Decama this time, I don't know when I will have time to come to Lyra, so I will sit with you for a while. It has nothing to do with the case, just as a playmate...for many years Bar."
Zhao Zemu didn't know what to think, his eyebrows wrinkled slightly. This made him look complicated, as if he had something to say, and he seemed unable to say a word.
Qiao said again: "Don't be too moved, the playmate has to add a qualifier - once. For the past few years, let's not talk about the playmate, and all we talk about together are fake scenes and polite words, and now in this situation, the scene can't be said. , I have nothing to talk about, I can only sit with you, literally."
He said this very directly, but he didn't know which nerve Zhao Zemu hit. After listening in silence, he suddenly laughed.
"What are you laughing at?"
"It's nothing." Zhao Zemu shook his head, "I just tried to think back, when did I become speechless."
Joe sneered, broke off a few fingers half-truth, and said, "It's been too long, it's almost impossible to count. It seems that you had a horse race appointment alone in middle school? To be honest, There was nothing to talk about that time, and it was a very difficult afternoon. After I went back, I thought to myself, I can't find you alone in the future, it's too embarrassing. "
Zhao Zemu raised his eyebrows.
When he made this expression, he faintly had his usual appearance again, "each other, I haven't asked you out alone since then."
Qiao simply counted down with his fingers for a few more years, "I've been hanging out with Gu Yan and the others since college, but I'll still invite you when I meet a party."
"Is it a courtesy invitation?" Zhao Zemu broke through.
"Yeah, courtesy." Joe laughed, then asked casually, "Who did you get close to at that time?"
"Manson." Zhao Zemu paused for a while, then added: "Breuer, Milo... and George, the whole Manson family."
Hearing Brewer and Milo's names, Joe snorted politely, but didn't stop on the topic too much, "Everyone can see that, I'm asking about friends, real friends."
Zhao Zemu shook his head: "No, where is the real friend."
Joe nodded and commented, "I guess so, you guys are really unlucky. It's really nice to have a few true friends. It's a pity not to experience it."
Zhao Zemu said, "I know."
After saying this, he suddenly fell into a long silence again, looking out the window and remembering something.
After a long time, Zhao Zemu suddenly whispered, "People are really strange..."
In his long-standing definition, only those who can tell the truth as they please can count as friends. After all, there really wasn't one before. But now he suddenly realized that starting from a certain sentence just now, the dialogue between him and Joe was no longer pretending to be fake, and it was all the truth at will. do not mind.
Suddenly, it will give people the illusion of "still friends".
So people are really weird...
When he was five or six years old, he was hot and hot, and he could catch snakes for each other's fights, and he did not care about his own life.
But by the time they were fifteen or sixteen years old, after only ten years of work, they had already drifted apart and parted ways. The names of each other gradually changed from "the acquaintance of life and death" to childhood, to childhood playmates, to polite old acquaintances, and it seems that this is the case for a lifetime.
However, now, Zhao Zemu is forty years old, young master Qiao and Manson are thirty-five or six years old, they have been with the snake for more than 20 years, one is just out of the hospital and is recuperating, the other is running around for a huge case, and the other is in the detention center. It was a world apart, but still vaguely found the feeling of being a friend.
Zhao Zemu didn't speak for a long time.
Joe looked at him for a while, then suddenly said, "You're shaking, I can see it."
Zhao Zemu raised his eyes and admitted after a moment of silence: "...Yes, I'm shaking."
"Aren't you dizzy when you shake it?" Master Qiao asked, "What's the hesitation? If it was me, I would have been talking all over the place."
"It's already in this field, who cares if you don't talk about it?" Zhao Zemu said, "It doesn't make any sense anymore."
"Indecisive nonsense!" Qiao said unceremoniously, "You used to be so neat in grasping snakes and twisting your head, why are you so ink-stained now?!"
Zhao Zemu shook his head, "You don't know, the roots of Brewer and Milo Manson are too deep, and they have implicated too many people. Every single one of them can be shaken by stomping their feet. After arranging the network for nearly 30 years, I can't subvert it with a few words."
Joe: "Oh."
Zhao Zemu: "..."
"It's been intertwined for thirty years, I know," Joe said. "Not only do I know, I know very well. Who died at their hands, who were in danger, who were united with them, who were in trouble, who were Try to check, you may not know this, but I know it very well. Not only do I know, but there is evidence."
"Do you have evidence?" Zhao Zemu finally turned his face.
"Yeah, there are quite a few."
"How much is a lot?" Zhao Zemu pondered for a moment, then couldn't help reminding, "They are not so easy to be beaten, and one or two things can't bring them down."
"It's alright." Joe said modestly, "It's enough for them to squat in prison until the end of the world, or to eat a single shot of the annihilation cannon."
Zhao Zemu: "..."
"Tell me, is this level of evidence enough to pry open your mouth?" Master Qiao asked jokingly.
Before Zhao Zemu could speak, Qiao called up his smartphone screen and found a screenshot sent to him by Gu Yan, "If the evidence is not enough, then add this."
Zhao Zemu saw all kinds of information from that picture, what "surface signal source" and "essential signal source" made him a little confused, "What is this?"
"Manson's minions have been sending threatening emails to our people," Joe said. "Do you know what the consequences will be if something of this nature is investigated?"
Zhao Zemu: "I know."
"Just know, what you mean by this picture is that although your family sacrificed so much for Manson, they have no guilt for harassing your family, and even sent a threatening email to interfere with several smart phones. , you have to put on the shell of your family, for fear that your family will not die completely."
Zhao Zemu's face darkened, and Qiao took another thing and put it on the table, "If these are not enough, then add this."