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"Alright," Uncle Kogoro remembered the hospital's rule about no pets and nodded when Mutian Yuan said he'd wait outside. Mutian Yuan then greeted Ran and Conan, and strolled out of the hospital with Little Fox in his arms. After finding a place to sit in the hospital courtyard, Mutian Yuan looked at the bleak trees around him and sighed, "It's really amazing, all the leaves are gone."
"Because it's winter now!" Little Fox replied, wagging her tail. Then Little Fox looked at Mutian Yuan with some disdain, "Can you stop asking questions like that in the future? I feel like my IQ drops, you know?"
Mutian Yuan shook his head, his face full of sorrow. "No, you don't understand what I mean. It was clearly full of green just a few days ago on Valentine's Day. How did these trees go bald in just five days?"
Little Fox was stunned when she realized what Mutian Yuan meant. Then she mumbled, "Yeah, how did that happen?"
Although it was suddenly winter now, shouldn't the leaves fall gradually, like a receding hairline? What's the deal with it all going bald at once?! Don't you need to give people some psychological preparation?!
After a long period of contemplation, Little Fox sighed and flicked her tail. "Forget it, I'm not thinking about it anymore. Conan is wearing a suit on top and shorts on the bottom in the middle of winter. That's even more amazing than the leaves suddenly disappearing!"
"You're wrong, Conan doesn't just wear shorts in winter. He wears shorts all year round. I even suspect he only has that one pair of shorts. Otherwise, why would his lower body always be so hot?" Mutian Yuan rolled his eyes and complained about Conan.
In his impression, early Conan seemed to have worn those same shorts through all four seasons until he finally bought other clothes later! It showed how tough Conan's life truly was!
Then, after a moment of silence, Mutian Yuan suddenly said, "Speaking of which, I just realized something. Why are we waiting for them?"
"Yeah, I wanted to ask that too! Why are you waiting for them?" Little Fox nodded and looked at Mutian Yuan with curiosity. Since Mutian Yuan wasn't planning on sticking with Uncle Kogoro, why was he still waiting for them here?
Realizing this, Mutian Yuan immediately picked up Little Fox and started walking out. However, he didn't go home. Instead, he carried Little Fox and aimlessly wandered the streets. After buying some snacks and taking a few detours, Mutian Yuan found himself in a small park.
After finding a place to sit down, Mutian Yuan started eating his snacks, chatting idly with Little Fox about everything under the sun, while looking at the bleak winter scenery around them.
Mutian Yuan and Little Fox were leisurely chatting here, but Conan in the hospital faced a crisis. Although Mutian Yuan had tried his best to fool Ran on the way to the hospital, even making Ran believe for a while that she had indeed overthought things, Mutian Yuan's deception, however good, couldn't withstand Conan's own actions! Sure enough, Conan, who got carried away with his deductions, completely exposed himself by showing off too much. This made Ran, who already had doubts about Conan, completely suspicious. Conan, with his intelligence, once again successfully caught Ran's attention...
After some probing, Conan had no choice but to try his best to pretend to be a child and started playing with a game console. However, Ran this time wasn't so easily fooled. Instead, she just stared at Conan's performance coldly. Conan, while pretending to be happy and diligently playing the game console, was sweating profusely. Conan truly felt that he might actually be caught here this time, especially since—he had just bathed with Ran the night before...
Meanwhile, Mutian Yuan and Little Fox, who were chatting idly in the park, had no idea about everything happening in the hospital. These two were busy complaining about everything from diet to prices. After this long chat, Mutian Yuan looked at the sky and stood up. "Let's go. Let's go home, pick up Maple, and find a place to eat."
"By 'find a place,' do you mean Ran's house?" Little Fox rolled her eyes and retorted, hearing Mutian Yuan's words. But Mutian Yuan shook his head. "Congratulations, you guessed wrong this time."
"Oh? If not Ran's house, where else can you mooch a meal?" Little Fox immediately looked at Mutian Yuan with some curiosity. From her past experience, Little Fox seemed to only know Ran's house for mooching meals. Had this guy found a new target?
"To Aunt Eri's house!" Mutian Yuan replied while putting the snack wrappers they had finished into a plastic bag, preparing to find a place to throw them away.
Little Fox pondered Mutian Yuan's answer for a long time. "She's Ran's mom, but isn't that still Ran's house?"
"How can that be the same? Ran lives with Uncle Kogoro, and Aunt Eri doesn't live with them, alright?" Mutian Yuan tied the plastic bag confidently. Little Fox was silent for a long time, then looked at Mutian Yuan and said, "You've decided on this family of three, haven't you?!"
"There's no other way. Besides Uncle Kogoro and his family, there aren't many other people here I can mooch meals from. Professor Agasa, that old bachelor, eats nothing but instant noodles all day.
Sonoko's family eats like they're at a funeral. Shinichi, that guy, is now Conan, mooching food at Ran's house all day. What else can I do but focus on Uncle Kogoro's family of three?" Mutian Yuan grumbled glumly.
Then Mutian Yuan glared at Little Fox again. "Besides, why am I going out of my way to mooch meals everywhere? Isn't it so you and Maple can eat something good?! Especially you, you're so picky about food, disliking this and that. If you could eat steamed buns and pickles every day, would I bother?"
"Uh..." Little Fox looked guilty upon hearing Mutian Yuan's words, glancing around. "I can't help it. I'm a carnivore, not a rabbit! My stomach can't digest vegetables every meal."
"Oh please, you think I haven't watched Animal Planet? You foxes are clearly omnivores!" Mutian Yuan immediately rolled his eyes. Ever since he got Little Fox, Mutian Yuan had carefully researched the fox species. Although most things weren't suitable for his Little Fox, Animal Planet clearly stated that foxes were omnivores! It was just that the one he raised was a bit of a picky eater!
"Those are all lies! I'm a fox, and I have the most say! I don't believe those people are more beastly than me!" Little Fox replied righteously. Then Little Fox suddenly looked accusatory. "Speaking of which, it's all those gold coins' fault.
If it weren't for those gold coins, we wouldn't be so poor that we have to mooch meals every day! Oh, and it's Conan's fault too! If Conan hadn't messed up the time, we would have gotten our living expenses by now!"
Little Fox had finally learned the truth that it was always right to blame Conan for everything...
While chatting, Mutian Yuan and Little Fox unknowingly arrived near a kindergarten entrance. Just as they were about four or five meters away from the kindergarten entrance, they heard a slightly plump man in a trench coat and hat, holding a gift box, standing at the entrance speaking to a woman, "Hello, my name is Ogawa. I am Yuta's father, and I'm here to pick up Yuta to take him home."
The woman smiled and said, "So you're Yuta's father, Mr. Ogawa. Usually, it's your wife who picks up Yuta. This is your first time here. Let me introduce myself; I'm Jiangdai, the kindergarten teacher. It's a pleasure to meet you. Please take care of me."
Mutian Yuan and Little Fox didn't take it seriously at first. It was normal for parents to pick up their children after kindergarten. As Mutian Yuan walked, he muttered to Little Fox, "You know, the name Yuta sounds familiar. I keep feeling like I've heard a similar name somewhere recently."
"Doctor Ogawa's son is named that. Maybe you feel it's familiar because you heard Doctor Ogawa mention it before," Little Fox's memory was far better than Mutian Yuan's. She wagged her tail in reply, then looked at Mutian Yuan and said, "I've noticed you're not good at naming things, and you're also not good at remembering names. You just heard it this afternoon and you can't remember it. Not only that, you still haven't memorized all the names of your classmates, have you?"
"It's not that I'm bad at remembering names; I'm bad at remembering Japanese names. They always seem so jumbled," Mutian Yuan replied, shaking his head. Then Mutian Yuan suddenly said, "No, that's not right. Actually, I can remember some Japanese names, but only women's. For example, Maria Ozawa, Shoko Nakagawa, Reiko Kobayashi! I can list quite a few!"
Little Fox: "Hehe... you're a sexist, aren't you?"
Mutian Yuan shook his head seriously. "To be precise, it's homopolarity!"
Just as Little Fox was about to complain about Mutian Yuan, she suddenly heard Mutian Yuan say, "Wait, did that person just introduce himself as Ogawa?"
"What's wrong?" Little Fox first looked at Mutian Yuan in confusion, then suddenly reacted: "Huh? Ogawa? Yuta? Ogawa Yuta?! You're not saying Yuta is Doctor Ogawa's son, are you?"
Then Little Fox turned her head and looked at the slightly plump man, who was currently chatting with the kindergarten teacher at the kindergarten entrance, which they had just walked past. "But that's not Doctor Ogawa. Is he a different person with the same name? It can't be such a coincidence, can it?"
"Who knows? Maybe it's just a coincidence," Mutian Yuan stopped, frowned, and turned to glance at him. Then Mutian Yuan shook his head. "Forget it, let's go. No matter what, let's go home, pick up Maple, and find some food."