It's quiet at night.

The bright lights were turned off one by one, and most of the city fell into the dark night.

[A newspaper office] A lot of people were lying on the sofas on the first floor.

Only after the two people who were playing games huddled together finally fell asleep did the child next to the old man quietly get up and tiptoe to the second floor.

·

There was a huge "Do Not Disturb" sign on the fence.

The child stood on tiptoe through the fence to see who was inside, but saw nothing.

So he quietly opened and pushed open the fence and went in boldly.

The light was dim, and the shadows of the furniture could be seen through the screen.

Xiao Zhi walked around the screen silently and saw the messy desk, the carpet full of paper balls, and the empty bed.

I also saw the back of a person sitting on the carpet next to the bed.

The clock strikes three.

The child hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether she had fallen asleep leaning against the bed, and stood there undecided.

Little did he know that the man had already seen his reflection in the glass.

"what?"

A slightly hoarse and slightly cold voice suddenly sounded, which scared Xiaozhi.

"You come to disturb me in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, are you looking for death?"

"..."

Seeing that she was still awake, Xiao Zhi heaved a sigh of relief. He bravely walked over to her, carefully avoiding the paper balls. Just as he was about to sit down next to her, he almost kicked over a bunch of cups.

Xiaozhi looked down and found that most of the cups were empty, but the colorful cup next to her had countless hard candies melting in it.

"...How much sweet water did you drink? Be careful not to become a fat man."

Xiaozhi had no choice but to sit on the other side of her.

He wanted to imitate Ye Kong's posture, bending one leg and then putting his arm on it, but after doing so he found that he became very awkward. He didn't know whether it was because his legs were not long enough or his arms were not long enough, and his hands kept sliding down.

The child had a stern face, trying hard to hide his embarrassment.

Ye Kong looked at the shadow in the glass, sneered rudely, took his hands away, put down his legs, and changed to a cross-legged position.

Xiao Zhi followed suit, and this time it was easy and comfortable.

"Why don't you sleep? It's already three o'clock," he asked in a low voice.

"Can't sleep."

"Why can't you sleep?"

"No reason."

“There’s usually a reason.”

"Then why can't you sleep?"

"Because I'm thinking about something."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Miss you."

"What did you miss me for?"

"Think about what you're thinking about."

"..."

Ye Kong was speechless, and turned to look at him: "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm telling the truth."

The child also turned his head to look at her, looking straight into her eyes very seriously: "What are you thinking about?"

The boy had a pair of almond-shaped eyes with large, round pupils that darkly reflected her silent expression.

After a long while, Ye Kong turned back and looked out the window: "I don't know what I'm thinking."

"Are you thinking about Wen Can?"

"You know again?"

"I know the ins and outs of this matter. I have studied it for several days."

"Oh?" Ye Kong said calmly, "What do you think?"

"I think it's normal to pay for one's life with one's life. The man named Wen Rong killed Wen Can's biological mother. He deserved to die at the hands of Wen Can, even though Wen Can was his son."

"Ninety out of a hundred people think so." Ye Kong was indifferent.

"But the law does not allow people to kill people."

"Ninety-nine out of a hundred people know it, and the remaining one is a fool."

"So the problem is the contradiction between two perceptions," Xiaozhi said. "One perception is that we should obey the truth in our hearts, and the other perception is that we should obey the truth of social rules. But in fact, even if we hand it over to the law, the law may not necessarily sentence him to death."

"Nonsense." Ye Kong said, "Isn't it just that you don't want to gamble on that?"

"So you agree with Wen Can's approach?" Xiao Zhi asked.

Ye Kong was silent for a while: "If it were me, I would also kill Wen Rong myself."

"But this doesn't mean you agree with his approach - because you are you and he is him. You would do this yourself, but it doesn't mean you agree and support him doing that." Xiao Zhi showed a look of sudden enlightenment, "Is this why you can't sleep?!"

"........."

Ye Kong turned his head to look at the excited expression on the little brat's face, raised his hand and slapped him on the back of the head mercilessly: "What are you doing? Are you acting as a psychological counselor for me?"

"I have indeed included this career in my future career direction." Xiao Zhi smiled and touched the back of his head, "But at this stage I am still more interested in painting."

Ye Kong leaned back on the edge of the bed and said calmly, "Don't always imitate me."

There was another long silence.

The clock ticks away.

The night was getting darker and darker, but it was also approaching dawn.

The street lights outside covered the treetops like moonlight, as if holding up a bride's veil.

"I wish you could stop him—if you can."

The child's voice suddenly sounded, causing Ye Kong to look sideways and raise his eyebrows, "You know it's weird that you said that, right?"

"I know." Xiaozhi said, "but I really think so."

"Why? If I remember correctly, you are also a little brat who hates to meddle in other people's business and even wishes that everyone in the world except the Flower Box would die."

"Because he is related to you." Xiao Zhi said as a matter of course, "If he really killed someone, he would have to go to jail, or even be sentenced to death. Otherwise, even if he escaped and wandered around the world - neither is a good result. And I'm not sure how much impact these results will have on you. Will it make you never return to the Flower Box from now on? So I hope you can stop him, and that's why I showed the comic to the old man."

Ye Kong became interested. He sat up straight, crossed his arms, turned around and looked at him: "Are you so sure that the old man will come?"

Xiao Zhi nodded heavily: "Because you were definitely not the kind of person who would draw the daily life of the Flower Box for thousands of people to see - that was your perspective, you would never do that before! What's the difference between this and showing a part of yourself to others? You would never do that!"

"..." Ye Kong was stunned, "Really? Was I so autistic before?"

Xiao Zhi showed an expression of "How could you say such a thing?" and "How could this person be so ignorant?" "I heard from the old man that when you were a kid, you fought with others. Even if others started it first, you were too lazy to explain. Others thought you were a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water. Later, when we came to the orphanage, you always gave orders or directly stopped us from doing anything. No matter how hard I cried, you didn't say anything... Wait, there are many more things like this. You used to be a person who didn't smile much and didn't like to communicate with others."

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