Social Death vs. Real Death

One minute earlier.

After Conan finished a song, he felt completely refreshed.

Usually, in situations like this, he would only get a few lines in before someone ruthlessly snatched the Microphone away.

But today, perhaps because they saw him as a child, nobody crushed his enthusiasm.

So it was only after he finished singing that Conan belatedly realized something was off about the atmosphere in the KTV room.

—Everyone else had completely lost the light in their eyes, sitting rigidly in their seats like stone statues. Even after he finished, nobody applauded.

"..." Conan fell silent for a moment, then somewhat guiltily set down the Microphone and slipped back toward his seat, waiting for everyone else to recover from their petrification.

The KTV room was dimly lit.

Only when Conan reached the sofa did he remember that Suzuki Sonoko had taken his seat.

But now that he was closer, Conan noticed another anomaly—there was actually one other living creature in the room.

—Although Jiang Xia had not applauded, he had not gone blank and turned to stone either. Instead, he sat calmly on the sofa, boredly shelling Melon Seeds.

Conan suddenly felt a little awkward and made small talk. "Was it good?"

Jiang Xia did not react at all. He did not even glance at him.

"...?"

Conan gradually sensed that something was wrong, so he reached out to pat him and remind Jiang Xia to snap out of it.

But the moment his hand stretched over, Jiang Xia reacted strongly, grabbing it and flinging him onto the sofa.

Conan was dazed from the fall for a moment. When he came back to his senses, terror immediately seized him—no matter how he looked at it, this resembled Jiang Xia's windup before beating someone up!

His mind buzzed as he was about to shout, "Ran, save me!"

But before that—

Jiang Xia picked up the Ashtray and examined it for a moment. Seemingly recognizing him, he released the hand pinning him down and casually set the ceramic ashtray aside.

Conan: "..." He somehow felt like he had just taken a trip to the Gates of Hell...

He let out a breath and climbed off the sofa.

At the same time, he thought to himself, Jiang Xia seemed a little off—he practically looked like he could not hear anything. And just now, when Conan spoke to him, his voice had clearly been loud enough not to be drowned out by the music.

Comparing that with everyone else's current state, as well as Jiang Xia's calm reaction...

Conan suddenly remembered something, and his face went pale.

Could Jiang Xia have...

Been deafened by his singing??

Conan: "..."

Thinking about it carefully, there was actually a scientific basis for this. For example, perhaps his singing had broken through the limits of human endurance, triggering some sort of self-protection mechanism in Jiang Xia...

Conan gradually began to feel guilty.

But then he hopefully thought that perhaps Jiang Xia simply had not heard him because he had been distracted.

To confirm it, Conan raised his voice and made small talk again. "Um, how was my singing just now?"

A dozen seconds earlier.

After Jiang Xia noticed that Conan had stopped singing, he recalled the Ghost Fetus into the Pattern Seal and restored his hearing.

But the KTV room was especially noisy, with deafening music.

Having just switched from the quiet street, Jiang Xia had not adapted yet and only vaguely caught the latter half of Conan's question: "How was ×××?"

"..." Jiang Xia also realized that his reaction just now had been somewhat strange.

Considering Conan's Observation Skills, Jiang Xia figured that Conan was probably asking, "How's your hearing?"

So he calmly nodded, indicating that a mere song could not defeat him. "Pretty good."

Conan: "..."

It was over.

He had not actually deafened him.

...But it seemed he had sung him stupid.

Conan's Conscience trembled.

He touched his Bank Card and painfully made a suggestion. "...Why don't you go to the hospital first?"

Jiang Xia: "?"

While the two of them talked past each other—

Because Conan had stopped singing, the others gradually thawed out as well.

"Hospital?" The first to regain the ability to move was unexpectedly Kimura Tatsuya.

He was obviously drunk, cackling tipsily. "If you're going, remember to take Yamada with you."

He pointed at the large member beside him. "Take him to get his IQ tested—he grew so tall for nothing. He's really like a child. He can't get anything done without me around. Useless!"

As he spoke, Kimura Tatsuya selected a children's song and mockingly told the big man, "Go sing it. It's the perfect song for you!"

The atmosphere in the room instantly froze. Other than Kimura Tatsuya, everyone felt awkward.

...But one Ghost did not feel awkward at all. Instead, it was quite delighted.

Xiao Bai poked its head out from behind Jiang Xia's back, looked at Kimura Tatsuya, then at Tera Haramari, itching to make a move.

Jiang Xia lowered his head and glanced at it. Was its innate desire to play Matchmaker erupting...

Come to think of it, Jiang Xia had never spoiled anything for Xiao Bai, yet it could still tell that Kimura Tatsuya and Tera Haramari had an unusual relationship... Did it come with the ability to expose Secretly Love?

That was not bad. He could use it as a CP Detector.

If he ran into someone troublesome in the future, he could find the person they secretly loved and kidnap them as a hostage...

Xiao Bai suddenly felt a chill down its back, as though its pink world had been targeted by dark forces. It warily sat upright and looked around.

Jiang Xia wore a Face Full Of righteousness and casually petted it. When Xiao Bai looked at him, he gave it an encouraging look.

—Given the current situation, if he wanted to obtain the High-Grade Killing Intent from Tera Haramari, having Xiao Bai use Forced Confession might be the easiest method.

After mocking the big man, Kimura Tatsuya proceeded to mock every single one of his acquaintances.

Kimura Tatsuya was about to leave the Band, so he wanted to use this method to point out the members' shortcomings and make them become independent and improve themselves.

Of course, as usual, Tera Haramari was his primary target for mockery.

After making his way through everyone, it was about time for the gathering to end. Kimura Tatsuya had other work to do.

Just as he was about to leave, the intro to a song suddenly played through the Speaker—Blood-Red Venus.

It was Kimura Tatsuya's song, one he had sung many times at concerts.

The drunk Kimura Tatsuya was immediately interested and wanted to sing before leaving.

He strode onto the small stage in the room, stylishly flung off his jacket, and began to sing and dance with passion.

Several meters away, Tera Haramari stood by the door, watching the scene with complicated eyes.

She wanted to poison Kimura Tatsuya to death.

She had coated the fatal Potassium Cyanide onto the elbows of Kimura Tatsuya's clothes. Now that Kimura Tatsuya had gone through a full set of dance moves, the Potassium Cyanide had already transferred onto his dominant hand—when he ate something later, he would naturally ingest the poison and "commit suicide."

This song, Blood-Red Venus, would be Kimura Tatsuya's last.

Tera Haramari watched him reluctantly for a while.

When the instrumental break began, she used making a phone call as an excuse and turned to head outside.

On one hand, she needed to reduce suspicion that she had poisoned him. On the other, she was worried that if she stayed in the room, she would not be able to resist abandoning the plan.

Kimura Tatsuya immediately noticed her movement.

It happened to be during the instrumental break, so he did not need to sing any lyrics.

Looking at Tera Haramari's back, he grew a little angry and opened his mouth, intending to say, "An ugly freak like you really doesn't deserve to hear my songs!"

But when his lips parted, what came out was instead a deeply affectionate, "Haramari! I love you!!!"

Jiang Xia: "..."

He glanced at Xiao Bai beside him, which was clapping excitedly.

...He should not always let it watch brainless pure romance dramas. In the future, he needed to let it watch other things too, to expand its confession vocabulary. This "I love you" line was far too cliché.

Still, the facts proved that this cliché tactic was surprisingly effective.

Hearing those words, Tera Haramari's eyes widened in shock as she froze in place.

Everyone else in the room was stunned as well.

That included Kimura Tatsuya.

"..."

Kimura Tatsuya's face immediately flushed bright red. He had never imagined that he would actually blurt out what was in his heart. ...I must have had too much to drink! Being drunk really causes trouble!

Kimura Tatsuya panicked for several seconds before barely regaining his composure. He wanted to add a harsh insult to save face.

But today, his mouth seemed unwilling to obey him.

He clearly wanted to say "ugly freak," but when he opened his mouth, another even more detailed confession came out:

"I've liked you for many years! I invited you to be my manager back then because I wanted to see you every day. I like you no matter what you look like!"

Hearing his own words, Kimura Tatsuya's face alternated between red and white, overwhelmed with embarrassment and anger.

Yet his mouth continued. "But I never expected that you would get plastic surgery because of my invitation. I don't like you changing or sacrificing yourself for me. Every time I see your face now, I regret not telling you directly back then. If I had confessed to you earlier, you wouldn't have had to give up your original appearance because of me. All these years, I wasn't angry because I saw you—I was angry at mysel—"

At that point, Kimura Tatsuya suddenly had an idea. He raised his hand and clamped it over his own mouth.

...Now he could not speak! Hahaha!

Tera Haramari, who had been silently crying: "!!!"

...Potassium Cyanide!

There was still Potassium Cyanide on his hand!!