Fireworks bloomed continuously in the sky, and the fire on the ground crackled the wooden houses. The surrounding environment was not quiet.
Jing Baiye waited for a while, and even opened the system panel to check, but found nothing unusual.
……illusion?
Was he too stimulated tonight that he had auditory hallucinations?
"Angstra..."
Another shout came, this time clearly coming from beside me.
Panno's translucent body stood lightly on the ground. His hands were hanging by his sides. He had clothes on his body and no weapons in his hands.
"Go to hell!!"
The paper door next to me opened with a pull, and a person who looked like a bodyguard rushed out.
Anger and fear made his face look ferocious. Jing Baiye didn't even look at him. Bullets flew out of his crotch automatically from the bandage. With a wave of his knife-wielding hand, the opponent's entire body was cut off in half.
Blood splashed all over the floor, and his upper body slipped from his waist, flipping over the fence on the spot. His lower body hit Panno's translucent body, passed through, and fell to the ground.
The next second, Jing Baiye threw out the bloody long knife in his hand. A flash of silver flashed through the air like a stream of light, nailing straight into the left eye socket of the old man in the room. The blade pierced the skull and nailed his entire body to the wall.
.
He hung there unsteadily, and soon there was no movement, and a gun fell to the ground.
Easily dealing with the sudden... expected attack, Jing Baiye took a look at the map. There were no red dots on it now, and he was the only one left in the entire ancient house.
——There was also nothing in front of him.
Jing Baiye closed the map and looked at Pan Nuo again.
He stood closer to him.
When the attack occurred, he subconsciously wanted to stand in front of him and stop the attacker. Unfortunately, everything happened too quickly and was resolved too quickly. The enemy was killed before he could stop it.
Jing Baiye looked at his expression and suddenly said: "It's like this again."
He didn't know what to say to Panno at first, but at the beginning, it was like the lid of a jar with too much accumulated stuff was finally lifted, and the contents spewed out instantly.
"Why do you always do such meaningless things? We have been partners for nearly a year. Obviously you know my strength best, and I am the only one who can protect you when I am in danger. But when I am in danger, you always want to come.
Protect me. Before, you even made your own decisions and taught me a lesson for those lower-level members who didn’t respect me..."
"More than once." He emphasized dissatisfiedly.
Pannuo looked at him, his mouth moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he fell silent.
Jing Baiye was very familiar with Panno's current state. This mixed-race French undercover agent was not good at words. When he didn't know how to answer or what he said was easily offensive, he would choose silence like this.
"You're always like this."
Jing Baiye didn't know why she was angry, still angry about such trivial things.
"I've said in the past, just say what you want to say, and I won't do anything to you. You've already—"
He paused for a moment. Seeing Pan Nuo's current appearance, he quickly blurred out some words: "...Why are you still hesitating?"
Ever since he emerged as the heir, Jing Baiye has never had a good rest. His work in the group requires him to work overtime every day, sleeping less than four hours a day. He eats three meals in the employee canteen or eats instant noodles and other fast food.
People who don't get enough rest are either listless or easily grumpy. Jing Baiye is the latter, and it's hard for him to calm down at this time.
He stared at Panno, asking him to answer. Normally, he would never be so aggressive.
"...I'm sorry." Panno said softly.
"You looked in a bad mood just now. I thought you were no longer willing to talk to me."
Jing Baiye's mood became even worse.
Pan Nuo seemed to realize that Jing Baiye was even more unhappy. After saying this, he looked up at the sky.
Fireworks lit up most of the night sky. They were specially set off by the Karasuma Group for Kei Byakuya's birthday. Every city in Japan is holding this birthday celebration because the companies and subsidiaries under the group's name are spread across every corner of the country.
Jing Baiye originally thought that Pan Nuo would ask where this place was, what time it was, and why he appeared here in such a posture - normal people would have started questioning him like a barrage of questions when encountering this kind of thing.
.
But he didn't say a word.
Panno just watched the fireworks quietly. The twinkling lights in the night sky covered his blue eyes with a mist-like luster.
"The fireworks here are very similar to the ones we used to watch in the park..."
Panno murmured softly.
"...They are all so brilliant."
Jing Baiye was very familiar with the look in his eyes. When he heard his words, he also remembered the fireworks show at Disneyland.
He gritted his teeth and asked the question he had wanted to ask the most this year:
"...Why did you say those words to me in the amusement park?"
In the amusement park, Panno told him that he hoped he could go to the rescue side.
If such words were heard by others in the organization, it would be easy to shoot him on the spot. Jing Baiye didn't understand why Pan Nuo was so bold, whether it was at the amusement park or... that day not long ago.
The birthday gift pendant was close to his chest, and the warmth seemed to penetrate through the bandage, scalding the skin on his heart that was already full of scars.
Jing Baiye almost stared at his former partner.
"Because of that bar mission."
Pan Nuo's rare straightforward words made Jing Baiye stunned for a moment.
"That night, you stayed at my house for the night..."
…
After clearing away the traitors in the bar, Jing Baiye got into the passenger seat of Panno's Bugatti and fastened his seat belt skillfully.
It's already 3 o'clock in the morning.
Pannuo, who was in the driver's seat, also fastened his seat belt: "I'll take you back."
Jing Baiye was distracted when he thought of a piece of cake on the table he accidentally kicked over during the mission. It was the signature dessert of the store he wanted to go to.
It wasn't until Pan Nuo spoke that Jing Baiye came back to his senses. He turned to look at Pan Nuo: "Can I stay at your house for one night?"
Bugatti turned on the lights, and he saw Panno obviously startled.
"……reason?"
"It's relatively close to District 10. Besides, I've been working with you for so long, and I've never been to your house."
In turn, Panno visited his home many times and even went to a nearby coffee shop to eat croissants with him, but Panno never invited him to his home.
"My home is very simple." Panno said.
"It doesn't matter. Sometimes we have to live in a dilapidated house for a few days in order to stay on duty."
"...I only have one bed in my house."
"I can sleep on the sofa - if there's no sofa or a single sofa, then I'll sleep on the floor."
Jing Baiye didn't care much about the living environment. In his first life, he was used to living in the open.
Panno was silent.
Jing Baiye looked at him helplessly. His expression made him wonder if he was in a daze. He was about to reach out and poke the other person when he heard him say: "Okay."
"But I'll sleep on the floor and you sleep on the bed...it's very cold at night in winter."
"Okay!" Jing Baiye responded happily.
At that time, Pan Nuo had never cheated Baiye.
When he says his home is simple, it means it is really simple.
"Are you so poor? You can only live in this kind of..." Jing Baiye thought for a long time and found a more suitable word in his mind, "A low-rent house provided by the government to refugees?"
...No, you can’t say that. If the refugees were given this kind of treatment, they and some more sympathetic people would have started a riot long ago.
"If you have financial difficulties, you can live with me. I still have a vacant room there and I won't charge you rent." He paused, "Maybe we can rent a larger one together, and the expenses can be reimbursed by the organization.
"
Jing Baiye has always wanted to live with Pan Nuo, and this is not the first time he has extended an invitation to him.
Pan Nuo's back was turned to him, and Jing Baiye couldn't see his expression.
He closed the door and locked the four locks on the door one by one, then turned around and looked at him.
"...No need, I'm used to it."
He rejected Jing Baiye's kindness.
The communication with Pan Nuo was so difficult to write, I felt like I couldn’t write it smoothly no matter how I wrote it...